Jammu, Oct 31: Apni Party President, Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari has assured that his Party will resolve all pending Displaced Persons (DPs) issues if they were voted to power in Jammu and Kashmir.
A meeting of DPs was organized by the Provincial President of Apni Party, Youth Wing, Vipul Bali, and Provincial President, Jammu, Women Wing, Pavneet Kour here at Gandhi Nagar, Apni Party Office.
Apni Party Senior Vice President, Ghulam Hassan Mir, General Secretary Vijay Bakaya, Provincial President Jammu, S. Manjit Singh and others were present in the meeting.
During the meeting, the DPs and their leaders’ highlighted issues being confronted by them for the last several decades in presence of Apni Party President Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari.
After hearing their longstanding issues, Altaf Bukhari assured that his Party will resolve the issues if voted to power in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The DPs grievances should have been resolved by the previous Govts. However, the traditional political parties did not give heed to the genuine demands of the DPs for the last several decades,” he said.
Extending his support to their genuine cause, he said that he was concerned about the plight of the DPs and sought their social, economic, educational and political upliftment.
“We stand with the DPs and their demands like the release of pending sanctioned package of Govt of India, reservation in educational institution for their children and employment,” he said quoting the demands raised by the Apni Party Provincial President, Jammu, S. Manjit Singh, Provincial President Jammu Youth Wing, and Provincial President, Jammu, Women Wing, Pavneet Kour.
He said that these DPs had abandoned their houses/agricultural land following certain circumstances and settled in the border areas of Jammu region.
“The DPs are the first line of defence on the borders and they have given their sacrifices,” he said while appreciating the DPs leaders for their struggle for their genuine demands.
Citing demands of the DPs, the Apni Party President also sought on the spot fast track recruitment process of the unemployed educated youth in Paramilitary Forces, Indian Army and J&K Police for the DPs and other border residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
He again reminded that the Apni Party has always stood for the cause of the people in Jammu and Kashmir unlike other traditional political parties which work for their vote bank.
He said that it was the Apni Party that ensured protection to the jobs and land for the locals of Jammu and Kashmir when others were not willing to fight back following August 5, 2019.
Meanwhile, Senior Vice President, Apni Party, Ghulam Hassan Mir said that the issues of DPs were not resolved, but they were used as vote banks by the politicians.
“Different segments of people have separate issues that need resolution as per the aspirations of the concerned people. The traditional political parties were not willing to resolve the issues of DPs because they would not have other things to do. Hence, they delayed the resolution of the issues for seven decades,” Mir said.
He said that there was nothing impossible to resolve the DPs issue if anyone wanted to resolve the same.
Earlier, Apni Party Provincial President, Jammu, S. Manjit Singh said that the Displaced Persons displaced in 1947, 1965 and 1971 respectively following war between India and Pakistan.
“We were displaced after abandoning our houses and land. Here, the Govt allotted land in the border belt from Kathua to Poonch and was constantly facing problems. The authorities settled us in camps, but some went to their relatives. Most sufferers are those who went to their relative’s houses. On the other hand, there was a land allotment disparity. We were ignored, forcing the DPs to launch agitation. It compelled the Govt to release an economic package of Rs 25 lakhs whereas the DPs were demanding Rs 30 lakhs as package,” he said.
He said that the DPs were given one installment whereas the package was named as one time settlement by giving Rs 5.5 lakhs to the DPs. He demanded release of the pending package of the DPs.
He said that the DPs do not have revenue villages due to which deprive them of employment opportunities at the village level.
He further demanded that their long pending demands should be resolved. He criticized political parties for their delaying tactics.
“We were not given representation. Our areas are reserved for other people. We have no political voice,” he said, demanding political reservation for DPs.
He demanded that the DPs should be given property rights on the land and employment package from the Govt. Besides, Pavneet Kour and Vipul Bali also spoke on the occasion.
Prominent among those who were present on the occasion include Faqir Nath, Arun Chibber, Mohd Shafi, Rohit Gupta, Bodh Raj Bhagat, Ajaz Kazmi, Raqeeq Ahmed Khan, Abhay Bakaya, Adv Harpreet Singh, Raman Thappa, Sahil Bharti, Brij Mohan Dutta, Bachan Choudhary, Tirth Singh, Devinder Gill, Yash Choudhary, Vaibhav Mattoo, Rakesh Mahajan, Shakti Dutta, Vishal Jotshi, Kanwaljeet Sethi, Suhail Khajuria, Shivam Choudhary, Rashid Pal, Gulshan Anand, Sunil Sharma, Sheetal Sharma, Neelam Gupta, Shweta Devi, Monika Gill, Vicky Sudan, Nanak Choudhary, Ankush Dogra and others.
