Miles from home, 90 Kashmiris stuck in Ambala wait for their chance to return

In hopes of earning livelihood for a family of five, a 32-year-old Jaiveer Dar from Kashmir’s Baramulla came to Ambala in November to sell shawls during the winter season. “Never did I imagine to be stuck here and exhaust all my profits over rent and ration,” he said.

Migrants like Dar have been in this business for the last 15 years. Every year, they come to the district when winters are about to commence in November and return home in the beginning of March. With the lockdown imposed due to the novel coronavirus, around 40 Kashmiri shawl sellers have been stuck in the city.

“We rent a room for a few months and roam around in the district selling winter clothes. This time, it was a good season and I expected to earn a handsome profit which would contribute to my family’s growth. But I’m stuck here and have exhausted all the profits. I haven’t been able to send home any money and my mother is a diabetic patient,” said Dar.

“We have tried to meet the deputy commissioner (DC) at least thrice, but to no avail. We also tried to meet the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), but there was no response from her side as well,” he said, adding “We’re illiterate and don’t know about the online registration procedure. But a few locals helped us and we are expecting to receive a message.”

On May 5, some local Congress workers met a group of migrants staying in Baldev Nagar and helped them by registering their details on the online portal for their travel-related permissions. District coordinator Devender Verma said, “We raised the issue before the administration and an IAS-ranked officer asked us to help the migrants in registering online. But they have not received any response yet.”

Meanwhile, DC Ashok Kumar Sharma and Ambala city SDM Gauri Midha could not be reached for an official comment despite several attempts.

50 STUDENTS STUCK IN MULLANA

In Ambala’s Mullana area, around 50 Kashmiri students, including 20 females, from different educational backgrounds have been stuck due to the lockdown. Most of them are studying at Maharishi Markandeshwar University (MMU), with some staying in the hostel and others in nearby PGs. Many have applied for travel passes with the district administration and the UT (Kashmir) administration, but they have not received any response.

“A few students had managed to leave for their homes. We have been staying here since the lockdown was announced and most of us could not leave at that time because of pending assignments, exams and financial constraints. Earlier, it was very difficult to sustain and even get a proper meal. Now, the situation has comparatively improved, but we are broke and need to be with our families,” said Zahoor Abbas, 27, a research scholar at the university.

He further said, “We have applied for passes with the district magistrate office and the nodal officers in Kashmir, but I feel that there is a communication gap between both the administrations. The officers in Kashmir told us that they are waiting for an evacuation order and the local officers told us that they are waiting for a response from Kashmir.”

The chief warden of the university, JK Sharma, said that the students are yet to receive a response from both the authorities.

“Our only concern is that whenever there is any evacuation plan from the authorities, we want our students to reach home safely. Till now, we are providing online classes and mess facilities to them,” Sharma said.

‘PROCESS HAS STARTED, EVACUATION WILL TAKE TIME’

Akhil Pilani, IAS, (under training) at the DC office said, “We met the migrants at the office and they have been registered on the state portal. There are a lot of registrations on the site at the moment, but their details have reached. We expect their return after a few days as the process to send migrants home is going on in phases.” He added that the same process will be followed for the students.