Rehabilitation-GoI Style

Grab their land...and announce rehabilitation packages.These news items reveal the "real agenda of Government of India"
Pandits return to save their land, not for PM's promises
Arun Joshi, Hindustan Times
Jammu, May 09, 2008

Link: http://www.hindusta ntimes.com/ StoryPage/ StoryPage. aspx?id=fb1712c9 -047a-4d83- b8d2-eb8a7f81f07 4&&Headline=Pandits+ return+to+ save+their+ land%2c+not+ for+PM%e2% 80%99s+promises+

Much has been made of the fact that a few Kashmiri Pandit families have returned to the Valley recently. Large sections of the media have reported that Kashmiri Pandits are returning in response to the rehabilitation package announced by the prime minister on April 25. But the story, it appears, is misleading.
The fact is, families came back on April 22, three days before Dr Manmohan Singh's visit. And it appears they did so because they were informed that their ancestral houses were in danger of being demolished. These houses are in an area reportedly shortlisted for a bus terminus.
The Pandits demanded answers from the local administration as to why their land was being used for a project without their being notified.
Verinag, a retired medical assistant who used to live in Kolapur mohalla in Verinag, is furious. "The government is talking of rehabilitation on the one hand, and appropriating our property on the other," he told Hindustan Times.
"We have come to save our property from the government's illegal action," Lal said. "Our visit has no link whatsoever with the Prime Minister's package," he said.
He pointed out that the PM announced the package on April 25, three days after they arrived at their ancestral village.
Kanta Koul, a mother of three, brought her ailing husband Sundari Lal to the village instead of taking him to Delhi for treatment when she learnt that a bus stand was to come up on their property. "I sold my valuables instead of land to marry off one of my daughters. Now the government wants to dispossess me of my land and home," she said.
Local MLA Ghulam Ahmad Mir has reportedly told them they will be given land in compensation, but the residents are not pleased. Rattan Lal asked: "Why can't they construct the bus stand over that land."
Several Kashmiri Pandit families fled the village when insurgency reared its head in the Valley in the '80s. They shifted to Jammu, where most live in a Kashmiri Pandit locality called Durga Nagar, on the outskirts of Jammu.__._,_.___

THE RISING KASHMIR-a separatist leaning newspaper is more honest than GoI
Govt eyeing KP land for bus stand construction

Mehboob Jeelani,Srinagar, May 7: Despite claiming to resettle the displaced Kashmiri Pandit families, the government is trying to take over 14 kanal land of nine Pandit families for the construction of a bus stand at Koulpora Verinag.
Rajinder Koul, one of the landowners told Rising Kashmir that till date the government has not issued any notification to them regarding the construction of the bus stand.“This is our ancestral land. We are emotionally attached to it. We want to settle back in Kashmir but our property is being snatched by the government,” said Koul.He said that the government is spreading wrong messages across the camp of displaced Pandits by claiming to rehabilitate the Pandit families in Kashmir.“The government is making tall claims only to take advantage of the KP votes for the elections scheduled later this year. This proceed to capture our land is enough evidence that the government is not willing for the homecoming of Pandit families,” he said.He said few weeks ago the locals informed the Pandit landowners about the seizure of their land adding that the matter was immediately brought into the notice of the chief minister who suggested them to bring this matter into the notice of the concerned deputy commissioner (DC).“We met the DC and he said that a notification has been sent to the relief commissioner who is supposed to take an action. It is unfortunate that during the meeting the DC was compelling us to bow before the government,” he said.Koul alleged that the DC Islamabad is forcing Pandit families to accept the government compensation against the land that owned by them.Denying the issuance of any notification from the office of Deputy Commissioner, Relief Commissioner Vinod Koul said “Why should the DC send me a notification when the landowners have already made an objection? It is the DC who has to make a decision to settle the dispute,” said Vinod.Another landowner pleading anonymity said that the concerned MLA, Ghulam Muhammad Mir is trying to create a misunderstanding between the Pandit and Muslim communities.“Mir is spreading a rumor that half of the land is owned by Muslim community while the truth is written in the government documents that only 3 kanal of land is owned by the Muslim community and rest 11 kanal belongs to the 9 Pandit families,” he said

http://www.risingkashmir.com/?option=com_content&task=view&id=3333