LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday provided agricultural and residential land along with letters for houses under the 'Mukhayamantri Awaas Yojana' to rehabilitate 63 displaced Hindu families who had migrated from eastern Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1970.
Handing the refugee families the documents, CM Yogi Adityanath said that it was bringing their long wait to an end. “In 1970, about 407 families came to India from Eastern Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). Some families were resettled in different parts of the country, but 65 families kept waiting for resettlement,” he said.
Of the 65 refugee families which had come to UP then, two were untraceable. The CM said that working on an action plan for the rehabilitation of the remaining 63 families, the state government was giving them two acres of land for farming as well as land for housing. Along with this, Rs 1.20 lakh was also being given for construction of houses under the Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana. Each family would be given extra money to equip their house with a toilet, said the CM.
The state government has made arrangements to settle the refugee Bengali Hindu families in Rasulabad area of Kanpur Dehat district.
However, the UP CM used the opportunity to launch a scathing attack on previous governments which, he claimed, had done nothing to rehabilitated those refugee families. “The governments before 2017 were insensitive towards the deprived communities and neglected their development. The earlier governments did nothing for the Musahar, Vantangia, Tharu, Kol and other such communities,” added the CM.
The Chief Minister also directed the Revenue Department that the land given to those 63 families should be developed as a smart village equipped with all the basic amenities including school and hospital amongst others. These families should also be linked with employment making the women and men self-reliant.
“Women should form self-help groups while men can get engaged in animal husbandry work. The children should be associated with skill development,” instructed the CM.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak and Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh.