Phalgun Shuklapaksha 9, Kaliyug Varsha 5116
Barmer, Rajasthan : Nearly 7,000 Pakistani Hindu migrants who have been living like refugees in various towns of Rajasthan will start getting permanent citizenship and long term visas from Monday. The first camp for the purpose will be held at Barmer on Monday.
Notably, there are seven migrant camps in Jodhpur which receive an ever-ending flow of migrants almost every week by Thar Link Express, the weekly train between India and Pakistan.
Most of those who come never return as minorities have been facing difficult living conditions in Pakistan since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1991. The situation worsened with the strengthening of the Taliban.
However, life is tough for the migrants here. They primarily belong to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and live in camps on the outskirts of the city, which lack even basic facilities for water supply, education, health and even shelter.
The camp at Alkausar Nagar does not even have a toilet, one of the focus areas of the Prime Minister; neither does it have regular water supply.
“We have to get water from the nearby Madrasa, our children do not get admission in government schools and we cannot afford private schools,” says a fresh migrant who came to Rajasthan with his family just last month but did not wish to be identified for fear of persecution of his family back in Karachi.
Those who get long-term visas have to wait for seven years before they are entitled to apply for Indian citizenship, which is not an easy task.
“Many people also return because the living conditions are so bad here, but the inflow of people still continues. Government agencies often cite security reasons for grant of citizenship, though most of us were citizens of undivided India; they can at least give us refugee status,” says Mr. Sodha, who was a migrant but is now an Indian citizen.
The migrants are settled in Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and now Jodhpur because the Thar Express arrives here.
Meanwhile, BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has also decided to grant citizenship rights to over 20,000 Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
The move follows chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s assurance during the recent civic polls – which the BJP won decisively – that “no Pakistani Hindu would be asked to leave the state” as long as he is at the helm and that he would seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention.
Chouhan had made the promise in Indore, home to the largest number of such people in the state.
Special camps have now been lined up in Bhopal and Indore where senior officials from the Union home and external affairs ministries work with local authorities to help such migrants get such rights.
The process starts with the local collector recommending citizenship rights. The file is sent to the home and foreign ministries in Delhi for vetting and returns to the collector, who then issues the certificate.
Source : News 18
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