Delhi govt removes income cap for monthly allowance for Kashmiri Hindu migrants

New Delhi: Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said on Thursday that her government has decided to remove the income cap set for registered Kashmiri Hindu migrants to get monthly allowance of Rs 3,250.

Removing the income cap of Rs 26,800 per month will allow 1,800 such migrants in the national capital to get nearly Rs 39,000 yearly, no matter what their income is.

‘Relief is not charity, it is a rightful entitlement arising from historical displacement, and must be granted on humanitarian grounds,’ Gupta reportedly said.

She claimed that the decision would help the relief distribution more efficient alongside bringing it in line with ‘the provisions already in place in Jammu and Kashmir’.

‘These families lost their homes, land and identity, but never compromised their faith in the nation or their culture. For more than three decades, Delhi gave them shelter; now it is our duty to give them respect and protection too,’ she was quoted as saying.

The government announced that the ‘Special Opportunity Scheme’ it introduced would give the families a one-time chance to update the details of their members.

Alongside announcing to clear all pending arrears up to September, the government stated that ‘Records can now be corrected without penalties or recovery of past payments, ensuring transparency and fairness.’

Recalling the incidents in the early 1990s, she said that thousands of Kashmiri Hindus were forced to ‘abandon their homes due to terrorism and were resettled in Delhi and NCR’ for more than three decades.

Gupta added that ‘The government had been supporting them through an ad-hoc monthly relief allowance. But rigid rules such as the income limit and difficulties in updating family records caused immense hardship. As a result, no allowance had been released for the past one and a half years.’