Peoples Democratic Party’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi. File.
| Photo Credit: IMRAN NISSAR
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi has moved a Bill before the J&K Assembly, titled “The Kashmiri Pandit and Migrant Re-integration Bill”, to facilitate the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return and reintegration of Kashmiri migrants, particularly Kashmiri Pandits.
In the Bill, Mr. Mehdi from Budgam, advocates J&K Re-integration Commission to provide “to facilitate reconciliation, social healing, cultural restoration and coexistence through institutional, community-based and rights-oriented mechanisms”. The J&K Assembly will start a session from March 27 in Jammu.
The Private Members Bill sought to name a chairperson of eminence and integrity with experience in public life, administration, law or conflict resolution for the proposed commission. “Three representatives of the Kashmiri Pandit community, including at least one member from the diaspora and three representatives of Kashmiri Muslim civil society, including scholars, community leaders or social workers should be its members,” it said.
It said the composition of the Commission “shall ensure gender representation and inter-generational diversity”.
The Bill sought a mandate for the Commission to “formulate and oversee a comprehensive and rights-based re-integration policy for Kashmiri migrants, facilitating the transition from relief-centric assistance to long-term reintegration and reconciliation.
The Bill aims to ensure that return, where undertaken, is “voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable”. The Commission should advise the government on institutional safeguards necessary to guarantee safety, dignity and non-discrimination.
The Bill suggested that there was a need to promote narratives of pluralism, shared history and cultural coexistence through education, media and public discourse. “Support initiatives such as community museums, documentation of lived experiences, truth-telling forums and memory projects,” the Bill reads.
The Bill seeks powers for the proposed Commission to encourage mediation and reconciliation efforts involving religious, spiritual and moral leaders. It highlighted the need to preserve, restore and protect minority cultural, religious, linguistic and intellectual heritage.
The Bill also demanded renaming and restructuring of the existing Relief and Rehabilitation Department as the Re-integration Commission. “All assets, records, personnel and ongoing schemes of the existing Department shall stand transferred to the Commission,” it said.
Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits left the Kashmir valley and settled in various parts of the country in the 1990s in the face of raging militancy.
Published – March 18, 2026 02:55 am IST
