The benefeciaries thanked Khattar for allotting the land that they had purchased after being forced to vacate their houses in Kashmir overnight with the onset of militancy in the Valley. (File) A three three-decade-long wait of a group of Kashmiri Pandit families, who between 1991 and 1992 purchased land in Haryana’s Jhajjar, finally ended Thursday with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announcing ‘Vachanpurti’ scheme to allot plots to them. Khattar physically handed over the allotment letters of the plots –which are situated in Sector 2, Bahadurgarh — to some of the 182 such families at an event here.
“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 many as 209 families had purchased a total of 10 acres land in Sector 2, Bahadurgarh, some three decades ago. However, when Haryana Urban Local Bodies (HUDA) acquired land to develop Sector-2, this land purchased by Pandits too came under acquisition. The Pandits demanded that their land be released from the acquisition process.
The authorities in 1997 agreed to release 12 acres of land as it was not possible to give plots to all 209 families from only 10 acres that they had originally purchased. However, the authorities asked the Pandits to get the mutation of the land concerned done in favour of HUDA. The mutation could not be done because of several revenue issues related to the land concerned and the Pandits kept waiting for their plots.
In 2016, plots were allotted to 27 families in whose cases the technical hurdles were removed, but the other 182 families still kept waiting.
Sources say two months back, a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits met Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (earlier HUDA) Chief Administrator Ajit Balaji Joshi who asked its Bahadurgarh Estate Officer Shweta Suhag to look into the matter. Suhag got cleared all technical hurdles to pave the way for the allotment of plots to the Pandits there. The area of plot ranges from four marla to one kanal.
“On April 6, 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. 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,” the CM added.
Khattar said ‘Vachanpurti Mission’ 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 to the Kashmiri Pandit families in the state.
“I would like to clarify that Congress had launched the scheme of giving Rs 5,000 as financial and had framed rules that a family would get the said amount for a period of five years. As per our official data, right now, only one family is getting this aid as it has not yet completed the five-year term,” he said.
The CM 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 benefeciaries thanked Khattar for allotting the land that they had purchased after being forced to vacate their houses in Kashmir overnight with the onset of militancy in the Valley.
“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.
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