No Ration for 642 Displaced Families in Jammu’s Reasi District for Last 6 Months

NEW DELHI: Nearly 642 displaced families in the Reasi district of Jammu have raised their voice against the administration for not providing ration to the families for the past six months. The residents have complained that their pleas and protests have gone unheard.

The Talwara camp in Reasi district of Jammu region is home to thousands of migrants from Doda, Rajouri and Poonch districts who were forced to flee during peak insurgency in Kashmir. The residents received free ration and cash relief on par with the migrant Kashmiri Pandits. Nearly 2,200 migrant families have been living in the Talwara camp since 1996.

J&K Panthers Party’s Chairman Bhim Singh told Newsclick, “The families had to flee in 1990s after a series of massacres took place. We have been fighting for years in the Supreme Court until they got the free ration and cash relief.” The families live in dilapidated houses which, he said, were used by labourers working on the Salal Hydropower project in 1980s.

“There are 642 families which have not received their ration for last six months. Just a few of them got the supply in May. Despite several pleas to the officials concerned and ministers in the previous PDP-BJP government, our situation has not changed,” The Tribune quoted Balwan Singh, chairman, Migrant Action Committee, Talwara as saying.

Reasi Deputy Commissioner Sagar Dattatray told reporters that “he has sought a report and have written to the officials about the concerns of the migrant families”.

Meanwhile, Relief Commissioner ML Raina has said that they have released funds for 1,005 families to the Consumer Affairs Department. He further told The Tribune that one should ask district authorities regarding the failure in transferring the ration to the migrants. In 2017, the hopes of Talwara residents were high when interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma visited the camp to listen to the grievances of the militancy-affected families. Sharma had assured families that their demands will be addressed, but the displaced families are disgruntled as the promise was never fulfilled.

For a long time, the residents have been demanding better living environment which includes construction of flats, better living facilities, renovation of government school building, and an employment package to the jobless youth. The migrants say that Kashmiri Pandits are given priority over them, and accused the successive central and state governments of “step-motherly” treatment to them.