Need for uniform financial assistance policy across states for displaced Kashmiri Pandits: Congress MP in Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda on Wednesday sought a uniform financial assistance policy across states for displaced Kashmiri Pandits.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the House, Hooda rued that Kashmiri Pandits had faced displacement in their own country.

Besides Jammu, Hooda said, most of them have settled in Delhi and Haryana (NCR part).

He said they used to get Rs 5,000 per person per month in 2014 when there was a Congress government in Haryana, but the current state government has stopped it. He said the assistance should be at least doubled.

According to him, Delhi was only providing Rs 3,000 per month to Kashmiri Pandits as aid.

He suggested that the central government should make efforts to develop satellite townships in Kashmir valley for their rehabilitation.

In his Zero Hour mention, Sanjya Singh of the AAP said the Union government's announcement to implement central service rules in Chandigarh is an infringement of rights of the Punjab government.

The decision to implement central service rules in the Union Territory would impact contractual workers of Punjab government working in Chandigarh, he said while noting that state Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced that contractual workers would be regularised.

Singh said central service rule should not be implemented in Chandigarh.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had recently announced that the central service rules will apply to the employees of the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Punjab Chief Minister Mann had slammed the Centre's decision, claiming that it went against the Punjab Reorganisation Act.