J&K: Administration to hold serial programs to listen to PoK refugees’ problems

Jammu and Kashmir [India], March 5 (ANI): The Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory administration has decided to hold special 14-day serial programs to listen to the problems of refugees who migrated from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (Pok) in the years 1947, 1965 and 1971 and settled in different areas of Jammu province.

The special governance camps will start on Monday from Sports Stadium Bhor Camp in Chatta which will be inaugurated by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha. These programs are being organized with the support of PoK Visthapit Sewa Samiti which will continue till March 19.

According to PoK Visthapit Sewa Samiti General Secretary Arun Choudhary, the programs will be organised on March 11-12 at Geeta Mandir Smriti Bhavan Bakshi Nagar, Jammu Higher Secondary School Dungi Rajouri, March 12 at Dak Bangla Poonch, March 15 at Shiv Om Palace near New Bus Ada Khodakhnoor, March 18 at Tara Palace Ramgarh Samba, High School Ward No. 21, Chak Sheikhan, Kathua, Adarsh Colony, Udhampur and Lamberi, Nowshera.

Awareness camps under the title ‘LG’s Special Governance Camp for PoK Displaced Persons’ are being organized for the first time. These camps include various government departments like skill development, social welfare, industry and commerce, employment, youth services and sports, education, transport, rural development and panchayati raj, health, EDI and banks.

PoK’s displaced persons are under various schemes and programs implemented by the government, going to be registered and transported mainly through skill development, self-employment, social assistance, studies, sports, financial inclusion and so on.

The refugees thanked the administration and said that for the first time in a systematic way, the government has focused on their problems and demands and they are hopeful that all their problems will be solved. During these programs, there will be a strong demand to take back PoK.

The choice given to Pakistan’s people to choose a civilian government is nothing but an illusion of choices. No matter whoever leads the next civilian government in Pakistan, the strings of power will remain in the hands of the military establishment, writes Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir who currently lives in exile in the UK. (ANI)