Though appreciative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for visiting Kashmiri Pandit migrant camps, an organisation of the community on Tuesday described as "insufficient" the gesture extended to them.
Panun Kashmir said Singh had not said anything about "long-term rehabilitation" of nearly three lakh people forced out of the valley because of terrorism 15 years ago.
"The Prime Minister's gesture of visiting the Kashmiri migrant camps is appreciative. At least his move acknowledges that community members are living in pitiable conditions," Panun Kashmir general secretary Ramesh Manvati said in Delhi.
He also welcomed Singh's description of the displaced people as "refugees" and equating them with himself. "Quite clearly, he realised that condition of the migrants is not good," he said.
On Singh's announcement to construct two-room tenements for the migrants, he said "it is insufficient. The Prime Minister should have spelt out what the government intends to do for long-term rehabilitation of the displaced people".
"The Prime Minister should have clarified whether the provision of the accommodation meant that it was a long-term or temporary arrangement," Manvati said.
The Panun Kashmir leader asserted that the only viable way for Kashmiri pandits rehabilitation was through reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir state and creating a separate "homeland" for them.
Meanwhile, another Pandit organisation condemned panthers party chief Bhim Singh's remarks against provision of accommodation to the migrants. "It is for the first time in 16 years that a Prime Minister has spoken some kind words about Kashmiri pandits but regrettably, people like Bhim Singh cannot digest it for reasons best known to him," Kashmir Sewak Samaj vice president M L Hasha said.
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