JAMMU: The government has to "heal the wounds" of youth and bring the misguided people back to the mainstream, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said today while announcing that her government will decide on a rehabilitation of those affected during last year's unrest in the Valley. “We are here to heal the wounds of the youth.
Paying them a compensation of Rs 5 lakh is nothing as the loss of life can never be compensated," she said while replying to a discussion in the Legislative Council on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor's Address. “We have come out to heal the wounds of the people and we will decide here and it (rehabilitation) is we who have to decide it here as we have to live in Jammu and Kashmir," Mehbooba said. "We have to heal the wounds of these children. We have to bring them back (to mainstream),” she said. She spoke on the issue as the Opposition parties National Conference and Congress created ruckus in the Assembly, asking the government to clarify whether it would pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed during last year's Kashmir unrest since PDP ally BJP is apparently not in its favour.
Union Minister and senior BJP leader Jitendra Singh had said yesterday that the state government should not take any steps which would demoralise the nationalistic forces and encourage people who work against the national interest. Speaking in the state Assembly on January 9, the Chief Minister had said, "They are our own children and we have to ensure their rehabilitation. We have kept an amount of Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia as compensation for the next of kin in case of deaths." In the Council, Mehbooba further said "there were some families who have lost their dear ones and we have to rehabilitate some of them like (lecturer) Latoo (who was killed in an operation by security forces).... Like this lecturer, who lost his life, his wife was dependent and is facing difficult times. If we cannot give her job who else will?