Hindu migrants from Pakistan residing in Jaisalmer set up a settlement on a 40-bigha land property provided by the district administration in May this year to house almost 250 families, both with and without citizenship in India.
Jodhpur is also home to the largest population of Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who are not so fortunate.
The migrants living in Jodhpur are still hoping for a similar piece of land from the district administration for their rehabilitation.
From a plot in Jaisalmer, there has been a forced eviction of Pakistani migrant families. And now CM Ashok Gehlot is liable to find land for their resettlement at another place as soon as possible.
In April, another such case also came to light where in Jodhpur 70 structures of these migrants allegedly standing on government land were demolished, failing to get sympathy from the state government.
This incident had all the media attention back in April and was hitting the National Headlines. According to the statement of the president Hindu Singh Sodha of Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS), the DM of Jodhpur had advised him about land having been pointed out for rehabilitation of the migrant community a few times back.
SLS is an organization that works for the welfare of the families of the Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
If we look at the number then somewhere around 18,000 Pakistani Hindu migrants are living in 3-4 various localities of Jodhpur district, mainly in Soorsagar, Gangana-Jhanwar road, and in the Mandore area. They have been surviving under pathetic conditions.
Hindu Singh Sodha furthermore said that people living there do not have necessities in these colonies. He has urged the Jodhpur district administration to make available a land acreage so that migrants with Indian citizenship can be provided lease deeds, and those without Indian citizenship could be accommodated.
A 500-bigha land acreage for 1,700 residential plots earmarked for the Hindu migrants by the former BJP government in the year 2018 goes on to be out of the beneficiaries’ reach.
Rajasthan presently has almost 25,000 registered Hindu Pak migrants, of which 18,000 reside in Jodhpur.
While 10,000 of them are suitable for Indian citizenship. But in the past five years, the state has consented to about 2,000.