J&K, New Delhi play cruel joke with Chhamb refugees Widows, destitutes paid just Rs 60 monthly pension 1/8/2015 JAMMU, Jan 7: Call it irony of fate or cruel joke played by the state as well as central governments, refugee destitutes and widows who migrated from Chhamb during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars and are living in camps are paid a meagre Rs. 60 as monthly pension. Those who were financially well placed and had only property in Chhamb area but were residing elsewhere in the state and did not stay in the relief camps are being paid Rs. 25, 000 as ex-gratia relief, astronimically higher than what is being paid to destitutes and widows. None knows criteria followed by the two governments while recommending Rs.25000 for each family which is not living in camps and for fixing monthly pension of Rs. 60 for destitutes and widows of Chhamb. This meagre pension for widows and destitutes has been termed as special assistance by the two governments for those who lost their family members, property, agricultural as well as non-agricultural land alongwith means of livelihood when they were forced to migrate from Chhamb during the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan. Apart from Rs. 60 as monthly pension for destitutes and widows, this special assistance includes Ad-hoc maintenance grant of Rs. 300, special resettlement grant of Rs. 100, housing grant upto Rs. 5000 and small housing plots. Interestingly, this special assistance grant has never been revisited by the respective governments despite knowing well that the same is not commensurate to the modern day needs and demands. This pension amount was fixed in the year 1974 and has since then remained unchanged for the simple reason that this is part of special maintenance grant. What makes special maintenance grant interesting is that apart from pension which is meagre Rs. 60; Adhoc maintenance grant of Rs. 300, special resettlement grant of Rs. 100 and housing grant of Rs. 5000 are all paid one time. Hence, a widow or destitute belonging to Chhamb region gets Rs. 5460 as one time compensation for having lost everything including their bread and butter. Widows who have no one to earn at home or no one to take up there cases are even unable to complete requisite formalities for getting this special maintenance grant. If the official documents are to be relied upon, out of total number of 4600 families in Chhamb 1971 (camp), some (218) families were widows and destitutes. These 218 widows and destitute families were given cash maintenance allowance of Rs. 60 per month by the Chhamb Displaced Persons Rehabilitation Authority (CDPRA) from the year 1972 onwards. However, from the year 1984 onwards, these widows and destitutes were paid pension through Social Welfare Department of the Jammu and Kashmir government through a cumbersome process. Most of the 218 identified widows and destitutes were given meagre housing grant of Rs. 5000 alongwith 3.5 marla of land i.e. half the size of the plot (i.e. 7 marla) given to other families in the year 1975 onwards. 182 serving soldiers and 218 widows were given housing plots. Though this claim has been questioned by various organisations representing Chhamb migrants but the fact remains that Union Ministry of Home Affairs has made these claims in their official documents, which they have submitted to the Prime Ministers Office. On the other side of this dismal scenario is the case of non-camp refugees of Chhamb, a committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs called R.D. Kapoor committee had recommended for providing ex-gratia payment of Rs.25, 000 to each family of non-camp displaced persons. The then central government had accepted the recommendation and had accorded sanction to the State Government of J&K for providing ex-gratia payment of Rs. 25,000 per family. According to official sources, there were 1965 claims of non-camp refugees of 1971, out of which 1502 claims were verified as well as approved for grant of compensation. Out of these 1502 claims, ex-gratia relief at the rate of Rs.25,000 per family has been disbursed to 1230 families and 272 families are to be disbursed compensation for which funds to the extent of Rs.68 lakh are available with the state government, after being released by the government of India. These are being disbursed among the 272 left over families. In both the cases, it is evident that the respective governments have cared little for widows and destitutes. They have solely focussed on silencing the dissent and left the poor displaced families of Chhamb to live on their own. Those who were rich and had influence in the government circles were paid hefty compensation and while those who were poor were paid pea-nuts
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 08:48:56 +0000
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