As the Kashmiri Pandit community completes 36 years of displacement from the Valley, an exile forced by terrorism and targeted violence, the spotlight has returned to Jagti Township near Jammu, where many families say "rehabilitation" has slowly turned into another endless painful ordeal.
In a significant move, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Jammu & Kashmir administration to submit a fresh, complete, issue-specific report on allegations of decaying housing, broken civic services and unsafe access roads in the Jagti migrant settlement, after concluding that earlier official replies did not squarely address the complaint.
The proceedings stem from a complaint filed by Vishva Ranjan Pandita, an advocate and resident of Jagti, who approached the Commission alleging that the settlement's living conditions have deteriorated into what he describes as an everyday violation of dignity. The complaint registered under an online diary along with over 100 photographs, accessed by NDTV, paints a bleak picture: flats in "complete disrepair," prolonged administrative indifference, and a road network so broken that residents say it has become a matter of life and death.
In one of the sharpest lines in his complaint, Pandita argues that residents are being subjected to a slow, grinding neglect. He writes that it would be "more humane" if the authorities ended their lives "at once" than continue what he calls daily suffering through inaction.
The flats allotted to displaced families, occupied for years as a permanent address, are allegedly now unsafe. Pandita says residents have been flagging the need for repairs for more than five years, but each appeal runs into the same barrier: The government's claim of no separate budget for renovation.
Beyond the homes, the complaint highlights infrastructure outside the settlement, particularly the Nagrota, Jagti road, which he says has remained riddled with potholes despite repeated pleas for macadamisation. Pandita alleges that the road's neglect forces many families to take longer routes via the highway even for basic groceries and essentials, and claims the community lost "6-8 residents" in accidents during the year due to this compulsion.
NDTV has now accessed NHRC's communication dated January 21, issued by its Law Division, recording that the complainant raised "serious concerns" about shelter conditions being in a "state of absolute disrepair" and that despite repeated complaints, "no action has been taken" to address the issue.
The Commission notes that its Bench had earlier taken cognisance under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and sought an Action Taken Report from the concerned authorities. But after reviewing the material on record, including the complainant's detailed comments submitted later, the NHRC has now insisted on a more direct and comprehensive response.
In its summary of the rejoinder, the NHRC letter also records further grievances placed before it: the complainant's assertion that assistance has not been revised for years despite rising living costs; that community infrastructure such as halls, parks and essential facilities remains inadequate; and that residents face an annual water crisis lasting months, leaving families dependent on private tankers.
The Commission has therefore directed that the complainant's comments be forwarded to the concerned authorities and that an additional/complete report be submitted for the Commission's further consideration. The deadline recorded is February 28. It has also instructed that future communication be routed through the HRCNet portal, signalling continued monitoring of compliance.
For many Kashmiri Pandit families in Jagti, already carrying the trauma of being uprooted from their homeland, this case has reopened an old wound: the sense of living as citizens without the full protection of citizenship. Pandita's complaint frames it as a stark contradiction: survivors of terror-driven displacement, he argues, should not have to fight again for safe shelter, clean water, and roads that do not turn routine errands into risk.
The minority Kashmiri Pandit community was forced into exile from their homeland Kashmir in 1990 after persecution and targeted assassinations by terrorist organisations. Thousands of Kashmiri Pandit families have since settled in Jammu - for years in makeshift camps to Jagti Township for the last few years.
Whether the administration's next report brings genuine repairs on the ground or remains another file in motion, will determine if Jagti's residents finally see relief, or if exile continues to feel endless even within their own country.
