Jammu: Even as India celebrated
its 60th year of independence from British rule, nearly 1.5
lakh people settled along Indo-Pak border line in Jammu
district are still awaiting citizenship and continue to be
called `Pakistani guests`.
Struggling for their basic rights as a `citizen` even
today, they are West-Pakistan refugees, who escaped the
holocaust of 1947 to settle in border belts of Jammu.
While those from West Pakistan including former Prime
Minister I K Gujral rose to positions of power, in other
states of country, similar people are yet to get citizenship
of J&K even after 60 years of their settlement here.
"We are unwanted and wronged people, who continue to
struggle for basic needs and right to live in India," chairman
of West Pakistan Refugee Action Committee (WPRAC), Laba Ram
Gandhi told here.
"If Gujral, who like them migrated from West Pakistan to
settle in Delhi could become the PM of the country, at least
they (West Pakistani refugees in J&K) have the right to
live, to seek education, employment, own land and right to
exercise franchise," said Bachan Lal Kalgotra, a lawyer in their
case for several years.
Article 370 of the constitution of Jammu & Kashmir,
which provides special status to the state, prevents these
refugees from getting citizenship rights--right to own land,
education, employment and vote in J&K, Kalgotra said.
However, refugees from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK)
were granted all citizenship rights and state subject
rights, he claimed.
According to official statistics, as many as 1,14,987
West Pakistan refugees are living in 137 hamlets most along
the Indo-Pak border in R S Pura and Suchetgarh and Bishnah
constituencies of Jammu district.
Many of the refugees have been complaining of living in
sub-human conditions in mud house without water and power
supplies. "We have no option but to drink unhygienic water
from pools," said Karma Devi, one of the elderly women of Rangpur
Sidhriya refugee village in R S Pura border town.
The youth, mostly illiterate, earn their livelihood by
working as labourers in agriculture fields in border belts of
R S Pura, Samba, Hiranagar and Jammu, while elderly people
work as domestic helpers and children beg.
Bureau Report