Treat Jammu migrants at par with Kashmir migrants: SC

New Delhi, July 12 (UNI) The Supreme Court today directed the Union government and the J&K government to treat the Jammu migrants on a par with Kashmir migrants for grant of relief.

A bench comprising Justices K G Balakrishanan, Tarun Chatterjee and D K Jain passed the directions after hearing counsel Bhim Singh who pleaded that migrant families from Jaammu were discriminated against by the authorities and migrants from Poonch, Doda, Rajouri and Udhampur have been living under inhuman conditions and some of the families have been forced to sell their small children for survival. Some of such children were rescued by the petitioner Bhim Singh.

J&K government had earlier admitted before the court that no relief had been provided to Jammu migrants since 2004.

In all there are 2201 families having 11904 members registered as genuine migrants.

The top court directed the relief commissioner to provide relief to the Jammu migrants after verifying their migrant status at par with Kashmiri migrants.

UNI AKS/SC RP GC1917