Modi government's strong push to the ambitious plan of resettling Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley is not going well with the security agencies that are expected to raise a red flag against the move.
Highly sceptical of the plan, the agencies feel that not only the plan is unworkable in the present situation as post-US pull out from Afghanistan, Pakistan's ISI and terrorist and militant outfits are planning to renew offensive in Jammu and Kashmir, it would also put a huge monetary cost in terms of men and material to secure the localities where Kashmiri Pandits would be settled.
According to security agencies working in the Valley such as Army, IB, RAW and BSF, about 211 to 431 terrorists/ militants belonging to various outfits are active in the Valley and among them those belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) could target Kashmiri Pandits.
There are also concerns if the scheme would pit the two communities against each as the government plans to build highly secured sub city for Kashmiri Pandits with all the built-in facilities like shopping mall, schools, hospitals, parks and recreation centres.
According to sources working on the plan, at the last count less than 6,000 families out of the total of 60,452 registered Kashmiri migrant families were willing to resettle in the Valley. But among them most families constituted of old people with young preferring to opt out.
According to the fresh plan submitted by the state government, the proposed provision of housing has been increased from Rs7.5 lakh per family in 2008 to Rs20 lakh, while assistance to agriculturists and horticulturists has been increased from Rs1 lakh and Rs3 lakh to Rs3 lakh and Rs5 lakh respectively. Incidentally, only one family had availed the incentive of housing since 2008 while none opted for the assistance.
The area and amount of the transit accommodation has also been increased from 240 sq. feet and Rs3 lakh to 515 sq feet and Rs8 lakh respectively.
To top it there is a new lucrative component of land acquisition worth Rs900 crore to allocate 1 Kanal land (605 square yards) to every family that returns. However, the J&K government wants to double the land acquisition amount to Rs1800 crore as the land prices have gone up in the Valley thereby escalating the overall cost of the resettlement project at least by Rs1,000 crore.
Besides these hiccups, a new bone of contention between the state government and the Centre is the number of locations for resettlement.
Conscious of the security angle, the Centre is keen to resettle Kashmiri Pandits in one location possibly close to Srinagar. But the state government, sources said, wants to resettlement them at four locations of Vessu (Kulgam), Khanpur (Baramulla), Hawal (Pulwama near Srinagar) and Kupwara.
A senior official of the J&K government, who did not wish to be named said, "Concentrating Kashmiri Pandits at one location would be akin to ghettoising them. It does not go well with Kashmiryat and would dilute the real purpose and spirit of the whole plan."
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