Chandigarh: The three-decade-long wait of the Kashmiri Pandit families, who between 1991 and 1993 purchased land in Haryana’s Jhajjar, ended on Thursday with the chief minister announcing ‘Vachanpurti’ scheme to allot plots to 182 families, according to a government statement.
Making this announcement during a programme held here on Thursday, Manohar Lal Khattar physically handed over the allotment letters of the land in Sector 2, Bahadurgarh, to some of the 182 families who were specially invited for the programme, a state government statement said.
The rest of the families received the letters from the state’s ministers and officers, who virtually attended the programme, it said.
A total of 209 families had purchased land in Sector 2, Bahadurgarh, some three decades ago, but could not occupy it until now.
“Today is a historic day in Haryana’s history as the wait of families of Kashmiri Pandits who had purchased land during 1991 and 1993 has finally ended.
“In these 30 years, they must have even lost the hope of getting their land which was sold to them without even telling its disputed status,” Khattar said, as per the statement.
After making suitable amendments in 1997, some of the plots were released in favour of Kashmiri Pandits, but those that did not get the land at that time had to wait for almost three decades, he said.
“On April 06, 2022, after verification and required measurement of these plots being recorded at that time, the allotment process has already been done through a draw and today, the letters to 182 families have been distributed to them.
“Other than this number, some of the families have already got their plots. Thus, through this entire process, promises made to these 209 families have been fulfilled,” he added.
Khattar said ‘Vachanpurti Mission’, which translates to a mission to fulfill a promise, “is a befitting reply to the claims of the Opposition”, which has been alleging that the present state government had stopped financial aid of Rs 5,000 per month to the Kashmiri Pandit families.
“I would like to clarify that the scheme of giving Rs 5,000 per month as financial aid to these families was not started by us, it was the Congress that had framed these rules that any family would get the said amount for a period of five years.
“As per our official data, right now, out of the total five such families, only one family is getting this aid because it has not yet completed the five-year rule, while the rest have completed their five-year norm,” he said.
The chief minister alleged that the opposition was now making baseless statements as it was unable to digest the success of the movie, ‘The Kashmir Files’, which is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.
The beneficiaries thanked Khattar for allotting the land that they had purchased with their hard-earned money almost 30 years ago.
“In 1991-92, we came to Bahadurgarh. After coming here, we purchased a small piece of land hoping to restart our scattered lives, but it took us almost three decades to get possession of it. We can’t express our happiness and gratitude towards the chief minister because of whom we got our land back,” said one of the beneficiaries, as per the statement.
