Parl panel calls for White Paper on J-K militancy

A parliamentary panel has called for documentation of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the form of a White Paper even as it dismissed the state government's objections to the suggestion as being "orthodox".
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Ministry has said that it felt that though the various aspects of militancy in J-K may have been well documented, all the facts should still be brought out in the form of a White Paper as part of a single document for public information.
The panel did not agree with the view put forth by the state government that it was not advisable at this stage to issue any While Paper on militancy in J-K.

"The committee is not in agreement with the view put forth by the state government. In the view of the committee, in the age when movement for transparency is gaining momentum and the country has witnessed a quantum leap in this direction, such orthodox views should not find place in democracy.
"When the whole world has now begun to appreciate India's views on terrorism and regard the country as one of the worst sufferers of terrorism, bringing a White Paper should not be a cause for concern," the standing committee's 184th report said.
The panel also rapped the J-K government for halting the registration of Kashmiri Pandit families who had fled the Valley with the onset of militancy in the early 1990s. It said that several migrants' associations have complained that there are a large number of migrant families who remain unregistered.

Though the Home Ministry has claimed that all families which fulfil the criteria have been registered, the committee is of the view that since there are complaints by organisations of non-registration of a large number of families, the Home Ministry should examine these and draw up a mechanism whereby families fulfilling the criteria are registered without much hassle.