Centre approves Rs 2,000 crore package for PoK refugees

New Delhi: A Rs 2,000-crore development package, approved by the central government recently, will be applicable to the displaced people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and not to those from West Pakistan.

The central assistance of Rs 2,000 crore would be given to 36,384 displaced families from PoK and Chhamb following an announcement of Prime Minister's Development Package for Jammu and Kashmir in November, 2015, according to the Union Cabinet decision on November 30.

In the aftermath of partition of the country in 1947, thousands of families from Pakistan occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir migrated to Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, during Indo-Pak Wars of 1965 and 1971, a large number of families were displaced from Chhamb Niabat area of Jammu and Kashmir.

A series of relief and rehabilitation packages have been extended by the Governments of India and Jammu and Kashmir from time to time to mitigate the hardship of displaced persons from PoK and Chhamb and to rehabilitate them, an official said.

PTI had on November 30 inadvertently reported that refugees from West Pakistan, mostly from PoK, settled in different areas of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts will receive the package.

The PoK refugees are bonafide state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir as they originally belonged to Jammu and Kashmir and migrated only from one side of the state to the other.

Since PoK refugees are state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir, they are eligible to cast their votes to Lok Sabha, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and local body elections.