The controversy over township for displaced Kashmiri Pandit community refused to die down with Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Nirmal Singh today saying that the government will go ahead with the plan.
"Definitely we will go ahead with it (resettlement proposal). They (Kashmiri Pandits) will go back... Stay there, go there live there take back what rightfully belongs to them," Singh said here.
He said that if "Gujjar colony" and other colonies can come up in Jammu then why there was a problem in setting up a "colony" for the displaced community in the Kashmir Valley.
"If Gujjar colony can come up in Jammu, if Sainik colony can come up here, several other colonies too have come up here as well as there (in Kashmir), then why not a colony for them (Kashmiri Pandits)," he asked.
On April 8, the state government had denied any such move, saying that there will be no isolated settlements.
"It's clear that the Kashmiri pandits are a part and parcel of the traditional Kashmiri ethos and they would be reintegrated into their native place as a part of the society and not as an isolated community," a state government spokesman had said in a release.
The statement had come after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, while replying to the motion of thanks on Governor's address in the state assembly, had said that he will construct Jagti-type flats for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.
He had faced flack from separatists and opposition National Conference.
Singh said that the "composite township" was not restricted for one community but would be open to all.
"Why a colony should not be constructed for them, others can also come to such colonies, nobody is prohibited they too can come and live in such colonies," he said.
He said that objection to the proposal was a "ploy" to misguide the people of Kashmir and communalise the situation there.
"This is just a ploy to misguide the people there and to communalise the situation and we won't let this happen," Singh said.
