Few takers for J&K domicile offer

Jammu:  Announcing the extension, an order by the J&K Government’s Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction, said, "No further extension will be granted" thereafter.

There seem to be few takers for the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s offer of domicile certificates to former residents who, or their ancestors, moved out of the erstwhile state years ago, provided they register with the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) at Jammu. The administration has now extended the scheme, announced on May 16, 2020, with a deadline to apply within one year, to May 15, 2022.

The office of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner has also decided to hold special camps to accept applications at places where a minimum of 50 such families are residing. One such camp was held in Delhi around a fortnight ago.

Announcing the extension, an order by the J&K Government’s Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, said, “No further extension will be granted” thereafter.

J&K saw large-scale exodus of the migrant Pandit community, apart from Sikhs, around the time militancy began in the late 1980s. The administration hoped they would avail the offer, which would make it easier for them to own land, as well as get jobs and educational opportunities in the Union territory.

However, even at the Delhi camp, the response was lukewarm. Of the nearly 25,000 unregistered Kashmiri Pandit families estimated to have settled in Delhi prior to 1989, only 3,000 turned up to take application forms, 806 of whom were registered and issued domicile certificates on the spot, officials said.