On Thursday 7th April 2022, Haryana’s chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar started Mission Vachanpurti under which Kashmiri Pandit families will be getting the ownership of the lands they bought in sector 2 of Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar district of Haryana during the years 1991 to 1993. This ends the three-decade-long wait of these families.
The plots will now be officially put under the names of 182 families. In a state-level program held on Thursday, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar made this historic announcement and handed over the allotment letters of the plots to these families.
मुख्यमंत्री श्री @mlkhattar ने वर्ष 1991 से 1993 तक बहादुरगढ़ के सेक्टर-2 में कश्मीरी हिन्दुओं द्वारा ख़रीदी गई ज़मीन का हक़ देने के लिए मिशन ‘वचनपूर्ति’ की घोषणा की, तीन दशक के लंबे इंतज़ार के बाद 182 कश्मीरी परिवारों को आवंटित हुए प्लॉट। pic.twitter.com/D3cxXjI1Pl
— CMO Haryana (@cmohry) April 8, 2022
On this occasion, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, “Today is a historic day in the history of Haryana. The wait for families of Kashmiri Pandits who bought land during the Congress regime between 1991 and 1993 is finally over. In these 30 years, they had almost lost hope of getting the ownership rights to their land. A few amendments were made in the year 1997 and the plots were allotted to a few Kashmiri Pandit families. But those who could not get their plots at that time had to wait for three decades.
According to a report by Live Hindustan, about three decades ago, 209 families had purchased a total of 10 acres of land in Sector 2 of Bahadurgarh. However, when the Haryana Urban Local Development Authorities (HUDA) acquired land to develop Sector-2, the land of Kashmiri Pandits also went into it. They demanded that their land be freed from the acquisition process.
In 1997, the authorities agreed to release 12 acres of land, as it was not possible to give all 209 families a plot of land out of just 10 acres, which they had originally purchased. However, the officials asked the pandits to get the relevant land mutation done in favour of HUDA. It could not be relocated due to revenue issues. They waited for their plots. Plots were allotted to 27 families in 2016. The other 182 families were still waiting.
Two months ago, a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits met Ajit Balaji Joshi, chief administrator of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). He had asked Bahadurgarh Estate Officer Shweta Suhag to look into the matter. Suhag removed all the technical hurdles and paved the way for the allotment of plots to Kashmiri Pandits there.
Manohar Lal Khattar said, “Allotment letters have been distributed to 182 families today. Apart from this number, some families have already got their plots. Thus, through this entire process, the promises made to these 209 families have been fulfilled.”
Slamming the opposition for the false claims, Manohar Lal Khattar said, “The ‘Mission Vachanpurti’ is a befitting reply to the opposition’s claims, which has been alleging that the present state government has stopped financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to Kashmiri Pandit families in the state. I would like to clarify that Congress had started a scheme to give Rs 5,000 and made rules that a family would get the said amount for a period of five years. According to our official figures, only one family is getting this assistance right now, as it has not yet completed a five-year term.”
The CM alleged that the opposition is now making baseless statements as it is not able to digest the success of the film ‘The Kashmir Files’, based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.
