'Over 30,000 refugee families struggling in Jammu'

Chandigarh, Sep 26: Between 30,000 to 35,000 families who came to India after partition in 1947 and settled in Jammu are struggling to get statehood rights till date, West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee claimed here today (Sept 26).

"Between 30,000 to 35,000 families are struggling for voting rights. Besides, our children do not get birth certificates and they are denied jobs as well," Committee president Labh Ram Gandhi, said.

"Our struggle is for the last over 60 years to get citizenship rights. Children are denied jobs... our three generations are finished," he said.

The refugees claimed that their families are denied benefits of Centrally sponsored schemes and that they are living in bad state of affairs.

"These people have always raised their voices in a peaceful manner, but the policy makers are adamant that they hardly know about their problems," Rajya Sabha BJP MP Avinash Rai Khanna said, adding that the party would raise their cause through legal and political means.

PTI