Hindu migrants from Pakistan living in Jaisalmerset up a settlement on a 40-bigha land parcel provided by the district administration in May this year to accommodate 250 families, both with and without Indian citizenship. Their brethren in Jodhpur, which has the state’s largest population of Hindu migrants from Pakistan, are not so fortunate. They are still looking forward to the administration for a similar piece of land for their rehabilitation.
A forced eviction of Pakistani migrant families from a plot of government land in Jaisalmer and the resultant outcry over it, led by the Opposition BJP, had paved the way for Ashok Gehlot government to hurriedly find land for their resettlement at another place. A similar incident in Jodhpur, in which 70 structures of these migrants allegedly standing on government land were razed in April this year, failed to draw similar sympathy from the state government. This incident had also hit national headlines. Hindu Singh Sodha, the president of Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS), an organisation working for the welfare of families of Hindu migrants displaced from Pakistan, said the Jodhpur district magistrate had informed him about land having been identified for rehabilitation of the community some time back. “But there has been no information about it since,” he said.
About 18,000 Pakistani Hindu migrants are settled in 3-4 different localities of Jodhpur district, mostly in Soorsagar, along the Gangana-Jhanwar road, and in Mandore area. They have been living under miserable conditions. “They do not have basic amenities in these settlements. We have urged the Jodhpur district administration to make available a land parcel so that migrants with Indian citizenship can be given lease deeds, and those without citizenship could be accommodated,” said Sodha. A 500-bigha land parcel for 1,700 residential plots reserved for the Hindu migrants by the previous BJP government in October 2018 continues to be out of the beneficiaries’ reach.
The poor migrants are unable to afford the Congress had promised in its state election manifesto of 2018 that all issues the Pakistani migrants face would be resolved. There has been little progress since on most of these issues, mainly shelter, education, health, and employment, said the migrants. “We continue to fight for these basic facilities even today. Not a single promise from the Congress manifesto has been met,” said Prem Chand, a volunteer of an organisation of Pakistani migrants in Jodhpur. Congress had also promised a separate, fully dedicated autonomous body for resolving all issues of the Pakistani migrants. “Tall promises are made during the polls, but no government shows seriousness,” said Sodha.
Rajasthan currently has nearly 25,000 registered migrants from Pakistan, of which 18,000 live in Jodhpur. While at least 10,000 of them are eligible for Indian citizenship, the state government has granted it to only about 2,000 in the past five years. plots due to the high land price, which is Rs 9,000 per sq yard. A large chunk of the community thrives on daily wages. For the past five years, SLS has been urging Jodhpur Development Authority (JDA) to reduce the price of plots, but in vain.
A forced eviction of Pakistani migrant families from a plot of government land in Jaisalmer and the resultant outcry over it, led by the Opposition BJP, had paved the way for Ashok Gehlot government to hurriedly find land for their resettlement at another place. A similar incident in Jodhpur, in which 70 structures of these migrants allegedly standing on government land were razed in April this year, failed to draw similar sympathy from the state government. This incident had also hit national headlines. Hindu Singh Sodha, the president of Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS), an organisation working for the welfare of families of Hindu migrants displaced from Pakistan, said the Jodhpur district magistrate had informed him about land having been identified for rehabilitation of the community some time back. “But there has been no information about it since,” he said.
About 18,000 Pakistani Hindu migrants are settled in 3-4 different localities of Jodhpur district, mostly in Soorsagar, along the Gangana-Jhanwar road, and in Mandore area. They have been living under miserable conditions. “They do not have basic amenities in these settlements. We have urged the Jodhpur district administration to make available a land parcel so that migrants with Indian citizenship can be given lease deeds, and those without citizenship could be accommodated,” said Sodha. A 500-bigha land parcel for 1,700 residential plots reserved for the Hindu migrants by the previous BJP government in October 2018 continues to be out of the beneficiaries’ reach.
The poor migrants are unable to afford the Congress had promised in its state election manifesto of 2018 that all issues the Pakistani migrants face would be resolved. There has been little progress since on most of these issues, mainly shelter, education, health, and employment, said the migrants. “We continue to fight for these basic facilities even today. Not a single promise from the Congress manifesto has been met,” said Prem Chand, a volunteer of an organisation of Pakistani migrants in Jodhpur. Congress had also promised a separate, fully dedicated autonomous body for resolving all issues of the Pakistani migrants. “Tall promises are made during the polls, but no government shows seriousness,” said Sodha.
Rajasthan currently has nearly 25,000 registered migrants from Pakistan, of which 18,000 live in Jodhpur. While at least 10,000 of them are eligible for Indian citizenship, the state government has granted it to only about 2,000 in the past five years. plots due to the high land price, which is Rs 9,000 per sq yard. A large chunk of the community thrives on daily wages. For the past five years, SLS has been urging Jodhpur Development Authority (JDA) to reduce the price of plots, but in vain.
