By Arun Sharma
In a significant decision, the Jammu and Kashmir government has granted proprietary rights on land in the Union Territory to West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs) on which their ancestors were settled by the then state government over 70 years ago.
The decision was taken by the Administrative Council which met in Srinagar under the chairmanship of J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha. The meeting was attended by Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, advisor to the J&K government, chief secretary Atal Dulloo and principal secretary to LG, Mandeep K Bhandari.
The decision ends an over seven decade long “discrimination” with the “displaced persons from West Pakistan’’ as they too have been granted proprietary rights on state land as has been the case with people displaced from areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), officials said, adding that it shall empower thousands of WPR families settled across the Jammu region.
These families, who were considered “non-state subject” and had no right to cast vote in the Legislative Assembly elections in the erstwhile J&K state, were conferred domicile status by the Government of India in the wake of the August 5, 2019 abrogation of Article 370.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
