Rajnath meets Parrikar and Doval, discusses J&K issues

A high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday discussed various issues pertaining to J&K, including rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, return of civilian land by the Army and situation along the LOC. The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parikar, state Governor NN Vohra and NSA Ajit Doval.

According to official sources, the issue of surrender of civilian land being used by the Army was discussed at the meeting and it was decided that state’s Chief Secretary will hold a meeting with Defence Ministry officials to identify those and work out a proposal.

The Army had in principle agreed during the tenure of the Omar Abdullah government to hand over the 139-acre ‘Tattoo ground’ to the state government but a final decision had to be taken by the Defence Ministry. Now, according to the sources, the army has been pressing for regularisation of a land in picturesque Gulmarg in return for the ‘Tattoo ground’.

The rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley and identifying land for their resettlement also came up for discussion. There are 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families in the country, who left the state after the onset of militancy in the 1990s. About 40,000 registered families live in Jammu, while another 20,000 in Delhi. The remaining 2,000 live in other parts of the country. The meeting also took stock of the situation prevailing along the International Border and LOC, amidst reports of infiltration attempts from across the border with the onset of summer, the sources said.

The meeting also reviewed the action taken to maintain security in the Valley in the wake of recent unrest following the killing of four persons in action by security forces against protesters enraged over alleged molestation of a girl. The Home Ministry said the meeting was called to review the development projects and other issues in the state.