PM’s package for Kashmiri Pandits saw return of 3 families: RTI

STC NEWS DESK
SRINAGAR, APRIL 11 (STC): Prime Minister’s Package of 2009 for Kashmiri Pandits, with an outlay of Rs 1,618.40 crore, has facilitated the return of only three families since its inception, reveals an RTI reply.
Congress leader Sanjay Sapru, who obtained and released the findings here on Friday questioned the credibility of the government’s rehabilitation claims, terming the gap between allocations and outcomes as a “systemic collapse of implementation.”
“For over a decade, this package has been cited as a cornerstone of rehabilitation. The RTI reveals that only three families have actually returned under the scheme,” Sapru told reporters.
He said that while certain components such as employment and transit accommodation show partial progress on paper, they do not amount to “dignified return.”
“Rehabilitation is not a statistic. It is a lived reality, and that reality is clearly missing,” he said.
The Congress leader also pointed to the absence of any institutionalised mechanism for community engagement and expressed concern over the management of migrant religious properties, including temples and shrines, which remain under bureaucratic oversight without a dedicated accountability framework.
“What we are witnessing is governance driven by optics rather than outcomes,” Sapru said, urging the government to conduct a transparent audit of the scheme and formulate a time-bound roadmap for sustainable rehabilitation.
“The return of Kashmiri Pandits cannot be reduced to a symbolic narrative. It demands political will and measurable action,” he added.
(Straight Talk Communications)