The Hindu : National : Bill to repeal Displaced Persons Act referred to Standing Committee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

National

National

Bill to repeal Displaced Persons Act referred to Standing Committee

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 7. The Government today referred to the Standing Committee the Bill to repeal the Displaced Persons Claims Act, 1950 and certain other enactments, following strong objections in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill had been moved for consideration and passing by the Government.

Agreeing to the members' demand, the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, said there was no difficulty in accepting the suggestion to refer the Bill to the Standing Committee.

The Displaced Persons Claims Act, 1950, and other enactments were enacted to make provisions for the registration and verification of claims of displaced persons in respect of immovable property in Pakistan for payment of compensation and rehabilitation grant to displaced persons. The major works of claims compensation and rehabilitation more or less had been completed by the end of 1970. However, some States said some claimants had managed to obtain bogus and excess allotments making it difficult to retrieve government lands and properties from unscrupulous persons. They suggested that the Act and other enactments could be repealed, the Objects and Reasons of the proposed Bill said.

Extension sought

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Lekhraj Bachani sought an extension of two years for repealing the Act saying several appeals filed in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir were pending. He said his own appeal was pending. Repealing the Act would cause grave injustice to refugees from Pakistan who had come to India during the Partition.

Nominated member Fali Nariman said that when there were still a large number of claims pending, the Bill could be deferred and moved in the next session or the Act could be amended to say that it would be repealed in one year from now.

According to Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena), the statement that major claims and compensations had "more or less" been completed showed cases were pending. Around Mumbai, in Ullas Nagar, there were several claims. "Even the claim on Jinnah House is not completed. Pakistan is claiming it and we don't know if India has accepted that claim or not."

Sharad Joshi of the Shetkari Sangathan, Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) and R.S. Gavai of the Republican Socialist Party wanted to know what was the "tearing hurry" for repealing the Act. They sought a survey of the number of cases that had been completed and were pending.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National