Prime Minister’s Employment Package: Pandit migrants feel at home in Valley

Prime Minister’s Employment Package
Pandit migrants feel at home in Valley
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 22
As many as 1,179 displaced Kashmiri Pandit youth, who have been recruited to various state government departments in the Valley under the Prime Minister’s Employment Package for Kashmiri Migrants, are getting a good response from people there.

“Earlier, we feared that the people in the Valley would not tolerate us. But after we joined duty there, we realised that they were just like us as they helped us to adjust there,” said Meenakshi, a government teacher at Pulwama district.

Meenakshi, who had recently come here to meet her family, said, “The good response of the Valley residents was totally unexpected. With a change in mindset, they are no longer willing to fall prey to the designs of separatist leaders”.

Besides Meenakshi, many others, who were recruited as teachers, assistant engineers and junior engineers to various departments, were treated well by the Valley people. Another government teacher, Naveen Ganjoo, posted at Anantnag district, said, “I joined duty in the Valley three months ago and have not encountered any untoward incident. The people in the Valley are treating us like their brothers”.

He added that, “Initially, we found it a little difficult to get settled in Kashmir, but now things are quite well. Fundamentalism and communalism are fading there, as everyone wants peace”.

With the overwhelming response of the Valley people towards the Kashmiri Pandit migrants, who are being rehabilitated there, Vinod Koul, Commissioner, Relief and Rehabilitation (Migrants), said, “The Prime Minister’s Employment Package for the Kashmiri people has been successful, as 1,179 persons have joined duty in the Valley from December 2010 to January this year”.

He added, “Rehabilitation is a continuous process and the state government has been trying its best to provide maximum facilities to the migrants”.

Koul said at present they had provided transit accommodations to the fresh appointees. “Of 1,179 persons, about 950 are staying at the transit camps on a sharing basis and the remaining are living outside with their old neighbours or at rented accommodations”.