In a slew of significant decisions, the government on Wednesday approved a package deal for Kashmiri migrants including 3,000 additional government jobs and 6,000 transit accommodation for them, as we
In a slew of significant decisions, the government on Wednesday approved a package deal for Kashmiri migrants including 3,000 additional government jobs and 6,000 transit accommodation for them, as well as extra monetary assistance for those displaced from the hilly areas of Jammu region.
In an effort to speed up highway projects, the Cabinet also empowered the road transport and highways ministry to approve projects with civil construction costs up to Rs 1,000 crores. This would be done by segregating the civil construction cost from the project’s capital cost.
PMO minister of state Jitendra Singh, briefing reporters on the Cabinet’s decisions, said that an additional 3,000 state government jobs would be given to Kashmiri migrants with assistance from the Centre.
Transit stay for migrants in Valley The Kashmiri migrants to whom state government jobs are provided will also be given transit accommodation in the Valley, PMO minister of state Jitendra Singh said, adding: “The financial implication in this respect would be borne by the Government of India.” Giving jobs will cost the exchequer Rs 1,080 crores, and Rs 920 crores will be spent on accommodation — Rs 200 crores on buying land and '720 crores on construction. Around 62,000 Kashmiri pandit migrant families are now registered with the government, of whom 39,000 live in Jammu, 19,000 in Delhi and the rest across the country.
Earlier, in 2008, a package of Rs 1,618.40 crores had been announced to facilitate the migrants’ return to the Valley. Under the current package, 3,000 state government jobs are to be provided to Kashmiri migrants with Central funding. Of this, 1,963 jobs have already been provided and the rest are being processed.
The Cabinet, meanwhile, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also cleared a proposal to raise monetary assistance by over 400 per cent to migrants from the hilly areas of the Jammu region, to make it at par with Kashmiri migrants. Under this, 1,054 families will get assistance of Rs 2,500 per person, up from Rs 400 now being provided, that will cost the exchequer Rs 13.45 crores per annum. However, there will be a ceiling of Rs 10,000 per family, the same that will apply to the pandit migrants.
As many as 1,054 families migrated from the higher reaches of Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar to Jammu city due to militancy in the 1990s.
