Refugees in J&K Get Land Ownership | 03 Aug 2024
- Source: IE
Recently, the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government granted proprietary rights to West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs) and individuals displaced during the 1965 India-Pakistan war.
- West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs) are individuals who migrated from West Pakistan to the erstwhile State of J&K (now UT) during the partition in 1947, primarily settling in the Jammu, Kathua, and Rajouri districts of the Jammu Division.
- This decision was made ahead of the Supreme Court's deadline of 30th September 2024, for conducting Assembly elections in the region.
- The move ended discrimination by granting these displaced persons rights to state land, aligning their rights with those of individuals displaced from Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
- Earlier, WPR families were considered "non-state subjects" and couldn't vote in Jammu and Kashmir due to not being residents at the time of the 1947 Partition.
- They were granted domicile status and voting rights following the abrogation of Article 370 on 5th
August 2019.
