KASHMIRI PANDITS, LAND CLAIMS & GRIEVANCE PORTAL

For the first time in 35 years of displacement, additional district commissioners (ADCs) from their home districts in the Valley had arrived in Jammu to hear grievances directly. It reawakened a fragile hope: the possibility of finally reclaiming their homes and land. The last such wave of hope came in 2021, when the Narendra Modi government launched a grievance portal, only for many complaints to run into dead ends. On 28 March, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the assembly that the portal had received 10,173 applications so far, of which 9,713 had been “disposed of”, 7,829 approved, and just 24 were pending. But for many of the Pandits and Sikhs who fled the Valley overnight in the 1990, this ‘success story’ narrative doesn’t align with their experiences. Most of the 30-odd people in the Relief Commissioner’s office, showed screenshots of their complaints on the portal marked as resolved, and alleged their cases had not actually been settled. Watch the video to know more. Produced by: Mahira Khan