Valley administration creating rift between Govt and KPs: Pandit Organisations

Meeting of KP organizations

Various Kashmiri Pandit organisations have accused the local administration of Kashmir Valley of creating a rift between Kashmiri Pandits and the government by deliberately stalling the initiatives of the government and disregarding the instructions of the ministers and the Chief Minister.

This was stated by the Kashmiri Pandit leadership in a joint statement issued here today alleging that even the directions of the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Basharat Bhukhari regarding the salaries of the Kashmiri Migrant employees were being disregarded by local administration by withholding their salaries and issuing repeated threats to them despite clear instructions in this regard.

The leaders said that despite the assurances and clear instructions by Mehbooba Mufti and Basharat Bhukhari some Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) and District Treasury Officers (DTOs) were not releasing the salaries of Migrant employees who had to flee in the wake of unrest in the Valley adding the employees were in a miserable condition due to paucity of finances to run their households.

They said that while government had clearly instructed the Kashmir administration to release the salaries of the Migrant Employees without delay and not force them to join till conditions were conducive the respective District Commissioners (DCs) and DDOs were not heeding to the directive and instead some DTOs have flatly refused to release the salaries of the employees.

The leaders said that while the district administration was showing over enthusiasm in sanctioning ex-gratia to those who were involved in various anti-national activities they were hell-bent upon harassing the nationalist elements who were trying to create an atmosphere for dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits to Valley.

They said that the Chief Minister in her meeting with APMCC leadership on November 10, 2016 had issued clear instructions that salaries to the migrant employees should be released forthwith and nobody should be forced to join till conditions are conducive for their return while the Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Basharat Bhukhari had taken the step further by asking the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir to organise a video conference of all DCs and DDOs to instruct them to release the salaries but despite more than a month only 20% employees have got their salaries while others were being flatly refused with the threats that they don’t care for Chief Minister or the minister.

The Pandit leaders said that the Drawing and Disbursing Officers and District Treasury Officers were acting as super Chief Ministers and issuing threats of termination to migrant employees if they do not join forthwith adding if any untoward incident occurred with the migrant employees the respective DDOs, DTOs and DCs will be squarely held responsible for the same.

The leadership said that while they were thankful to the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti and the Relief and Rehabilitation minister Basharat Bhukhari for their initiative, the time demands that Chief Minister must intervene immediately to take strict action against the DDOs and DTOs who were harassing the migrant employees and trying to create a rift between the Government and Pandits.

The signatories of the statement include Advocate Ravinder Raina President ASKPC, Dr TK Bhat, Gen Secy ASKPC, Vinod Pandit, Chairman APMCC, King C Bharati, Senior Journalist and National Spokesperson APMCC, Som Nath Saraf, Vice President Kapal Mochan Trust, Shopian, Advocate Arun Kandroo, Gen Secy APMCC, Vinod Tickoo, Sundari Lal Koul, President Relief Holders & Over-aged Youth Association, Ravinder Koul and Rakesh Dhar.