Author: Bashaarat Masood
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 19, 2005
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=70647
Introduction: The state had provided
the pandits who did not migrate to Jammu or Delhi accommodation in Budshah
flats for security reasons
Even as the state government promises
migrant pandits safe shelter if they return to the Valley, the Estates
Department has ordered that pandits be evicted from government accomodation
provided to them 15 years ago.
The state administration had provided
the pandits who did not migrate to Jammu or Delhi accommodation in Budshah
flats. ''Their allotment was cancelled from the last three years,'' says
Farooq Ahmad Lone, Deputy Director, Estates Department. ''We issued notices
to them and only two of them responded. They were allowed to stay and in
fact, are putting up there. But the third one didn't respond to our notice
and was thus evicted. We had reports that he was not putting up in the
flats.''
In 1990, when militancy erupted
in the Valley, most pandits migrated to Jammu and Delhi. Those who stayed
back were moved to Metro hotel and then to the government-owned Budshah
flats for security reasons. Now, the Estates Department under order no.
esttAlot/NMS/123/2004 dated 27-12-2004 calls it unauthorised occupation
and has asked the occupants to vacate the flats.
''In my absence, the lock of my
flat was broken and all household items were thrown out,'' says R.L. Chowdhary,
who lived in one of the flats. ''I had gone to Amritsar for a business
trip and a friend told me on the phone that my house has been ransacked.''
Says Chowdhary, "If the government
fails to settle a few families here, how can they settle the thousands
of families they plan to bring back to the Valley?"
