PM warns troublemakers on using kids in Kashmir
MANN KI BAAT Says each death is a loss for India, reiterates that all political parties have spoken in one voice on the issue
NEW DELHI: A life lost in Kashmir is a loss for India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Mann ki Baat radio address on Sunday, and hit out at troublemakers for using children as foot soldiers to further their agenda.
“Those who push small children in the forefront to create unrest in Kashmir will someday have to answer to those innocent children,” he said.
Also, he appreciated the unity among political parties on Kashmir, saying their united voice has “delivered a message for the separatists”.
His remarks came a day after his meeting with Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who suggested an institutional mechanism for dialogue with the people in her restive state.
The peace process appears to be rolling as authorities in Srinagar announced late on Sunday that curfew in the Kashmir Valley could be lifted from Monday. The unrest has left 70 people, including security personnel, dead.
Besides, Union home minister Rajnath Singh is likely to lead an all-party delegation to the state on September 3 for talks with Kashmiris and to take stock of the situation.
Ahead of the all-party delegation’s visit, Modi said all parties have spoken in one voice for unity, expressing affection for Kashmiris. “On the minds of 1.25 crore Indians, from a village head to the Prime Minister, if a life is lost in Kashmir, be it of a youth or that of a security person, it is our loss, it is the loss of the nation.”
Modi said when every political party spoke as one, referring to debates in Parliament and the all-party meeting, “the united voice sent a strong message to the outside world, separatists and expressed our sentiments for the Kashmiri people”.
Home minister Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, BJP chief Amit Shah and junior minister in the prime minister’s office, Jitendra Singh, discussed the situation in the northern state on Sunday.
NEW DELHI: The Centre is set to approve a `2,000-crore package for refugee families from Pakistanoccupied-Kashmir (PoK).
More than 36,000 refugee families — mostly comprising Hindus and Sikhs — have been living in Jammu and Kashmir.
These families crossed over to the Indian side following the wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
The relief for these families was first announced as part of the `80,000 crore package for Jammu and Kashmir by PM Narendra Modi in November last year.
“The package is likely to get cabinet approval soon,” a home ministry official involved in the process of finalising the details said on condition of anonymity.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has identified 36,348 families eligible to get relief under the package.
“Each family is likely to get around `5.5 lakh under the package,” said the official.
This package is over and above the relief provided to PoK refugees settled in Jammu and Kashmir till now. It will be treated as a onetime settlement of compensation claims by the families.
Refugee families had, however, been demanding a package of `9,200 crore from the government. They had welcomed the package announced last year but had said it was only “the beginning”.
The issue of cabinet approval comes after Modi spoke about the plight of the people of PoK, Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan at an all-party meeting convened to discuss the prevailing crisis in the state on August 12.
The Centre has been claiming that PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan are parts of J&K and they should be taken back from Pakistan.