Demand representation, land bank for burial across valley

Pampore: The Gujjar Bakerwal Conference on Sunday held an important meeting in the Saffron town Pampore area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of organisation’s General Choudhary Mohammad Yaseen Poswal.
All district presidents from Kashmir Valley were present in the meeting.
The members demanded their representation in various committees constituted by the government and rehabilitation of nomadic Gujjar and Bakarwals.
” We are thankful to the central government for the forest act. We demand that our members be included in the committees which have been constituted with respect to this act,” Choudhary Mohammad Yaseen Poswal told Kashmir Reader, adding that their representation will help in the proper implementation of this act at the grass roots level.
He also demanded they be given sufficient time for fulfilling formalities to benefit from this act.
” We are the third largest tribe in Jammu and Kashmir. A number of our members live as houseless and landless nomadic,” Poswal said, adding that they don’t even have graveyards for burial of the dead persons.
“We request government to identity at least 5 kanals of land for them in each district of Ganderbal, Anantnag and Pulwama for graveyards,” he said, adding that government should frame a rehabilitation policy for them so that they can live good lives and can provide education to their kids.

BILAL HABIB