{"id":2170,"date":"2014-10-07T19:41:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T14:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2014-10-07T19:43:56","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T14:13:56","slug":"allow-us-to-rebulid-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/allow-us-to-rebulid-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"Allow Us to Rebulid Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>
Diaspora, Donors and Reconstruction<\/h6>\n

Why dovetail reconstruction of the State with politics<\/h3>\n

PUNCHLINE<\/h3>\n

Z. G. MUHAMMAD<\/h4>\n
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Ahmed 5, the naughtiest grandchild in our family is fond of toy cars and toy images of cartoon characters Spiderman, He-Man, Batman, Ironman and many others. He had quite good collection of toy cars- and was passionately possessive of them. The flood waters washed away all his toys except his cherry red BMW.\u00a0 His seven year sister, who also had lost all her dolls and toys to the deluge consoled him \u2013 \u2018grandee will get new ones for us\u2019. But, when Daneen 6, his cousin sister, thousands of miles away in Almaty heard the sad news, she told her father \u2018pack all my toys and send them to Ahmed- lest he weeps\u2019. Concern shown by innocent Daneen for Ahmed speaks volumes about the pain caused by devastating deluge in Kashmiri community across the globe and their eagerness to support their kith and kin back home.\u00a0 It also raises a fundamental question if Daneen has a right to send toys to her cousin and if this gesture of love and humanity also does not fall under the purview of Foreign Contribution Act (FCRA)-\u00a0 that becomes more stringent when it pertains\u00a0 to Jammu and Kashmir.
\nMy past Monday column making a case for international aid and intervention for devastated state of Jammu and Kashmir particularly Kashmir valley had initiated some e-mails from Kashmir Diaspora, stating that they wanted to contribute enthusiastically in rebuilding their homeland by raising donations and persuading international donors to come forward in reconstructing the destroyed infrastructure and rehabilitating hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. A US based Professor of Comparative Religion of Kashmiri origin in her mail wrote, \u2018we (Kashmir Diaspora) are all in our own way trying to make a case for allowing international aid. There is a lot of passion and energy amongst many willing volunteers. We have been at it from the start but governments here say that their hands are tied because of India’s refusal.\u2019\u00a0 India guidelines for receiving contribution under FCRA are stringent in as much as that even Non-Resident Indians donations are treated as of \u2018foreign source\u2019 and need to follow the rigmarole of FCRA. However, those holding Indian passports do not have such a restrictions and they have freedom to donate to any NGO registered in India and their donation will not be treated as of foreign source.\u2019 Internationally, in distress situations as that of devastating floods of September 7 no restrictions are imposed on diaspora to help people back home and work for rehabilitation and reconstruction of country of their origin. In fact waivers and incentives are announced in case of donation meant for national and international calamities- Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has called Kashmir floods as a \u2018national calamity\u2019 and the state government has described it as an \u2018international disaster.\u2019
\nIt is intriguing why much before making a preliminary assessment of the magnitude of the losses suffered by the state New Delhi refused aid for rescue, relief and rehabilitation for flood hit Kashmir from the United Nations and some other international agencies. And surprisingly the WHO was not also posted with correct information about destroyed health care system in the state.\u00a0 Instead, of informing the world organization that infrastructure of all major hospitals has been washed the report now in public domain gives a hunky-dory picture.
\nNow when the losses suffered\u00a0\u00a0 have been worked to be more than a trillion rupees by the state government and a non-governmental agency there seems no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 case for the government in New Delhi to refuse UN and other international aid for helping the state for rehabilitating people and reviving state economy. It also has no reason to stop the Kashmir Diaspora helping affected people back home by constructing homes for those rendered without shelter a or reviving the health sector.\u00a0 In 2005, when earth shook with ferocity and killed thousands of Kashmiris without recognizing the LOC. Reducing\u00a0 everything in sight to rubble, making\u00a0 towns look\u00a0 as if \u2018eaten alive\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 it was\u00a0 Kashmir Diaspora in various parts of the world and more particularly in UK that was\u00a0 in forefront,\u00a0 mobilizing international community to come forward in this hour of crisis and help in rebuilding the devastated Muzaffarabad, historic town of Balakot and other towns on the other side of the line. Notwithstanding, the initial hiccups it was for the open minded policies of General Musharraf towards that foreign aid that in 2006 billions of\u00a0 dollars\u00a0 were committed\u00a0 by international aid agencies for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of earthquake-hit AJK. But, for this international aid Muzaffarabad and other towns would not have emerged from the rubble as modern cities and economy of one third of Jammu and Kashmir would not have been revived to new heights.
\nNot only advocacy groups or economists even the state bureaucracy recognizes the fact that with droplets of a few thousand crores aid from the Central government the state cannot be brought to previous level of facilities and service even during next ten years. To put it back on the track the state administration would have to plead before North and South Blocks in New Delhi for waiving FCRA restriction for enabling Kashmir Diaspora across the globe raising donations and remitting the same to some state designated executing agency for reviving essential sectors like health, education and housing.\u00a0\u00a0 And inviting international donors for rebuilding the devastated paradise on earth as has been done during many other catastrophes in the past in the region,
\nOstensibly, there should be no major reason for the BJP led government for refusing\u00a0 UN, international humanitarian organizations\u00a0\u00a0 and other friendly international donors like America and Japan\u00a0\u00a0 participation\u00a0 in rebuilding in Kashmir in\u00a0 case the state creates an independent Flood Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority . An open and transparent organization free from bureaucratic stagnation and exploitation by the ruling party with adequate supervisions by GOI and the donor organizations.
\nIt is high time that New Delhi did not dovetail reconstruction of the State with politics<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diaspora, Donors and Reconstruction
\nWhy dovetail reconstruction of the State with politics
\nPUNCHLINE
\nZ. G. MUHAMMAD<\/p>\n

Smaller Default Larger<\/p>\n

 
\nAhmed 5, the naughtiest grandchild in our family is fond of toy cars and toy images of cartoon characters Spiderman, He-Man, Batman, Ironman and many others. He had quite good collection of toy cars- and was passionately possessive of them. The flood waters washed away all his toys except his cherry red BMW.\u00a0 His seven year sister, who also had lost all her dolls and toys to the deluge consoled him \u2013 \u2018grandee will get new ones for us\u2019. But, when Daneen 6, his cousin sister, thousands of miles away in Almaty heard the sad news, she told her father \u2018pack all my toys and send them to Ahmed- lest he weeps\u2019. Concern shown by innocent Daneen for Ahmed speaks volumes about the pain caused by devastating deluge in Kashmiri community across the globe and their …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2171,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions\/2171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}