Home ministry panel surveys villages along Line of Control
Facing unrelenting fire from the Pakistan side, border residents flag their demand for individual bunkers and land in safer areas
JAMMU: Following up on Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Jam mu two months ago, a high-powered panel of the Home Ministry officials led by Rina M it ra, special secretary( internal security), on Saturday surveyed villages close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the two border districts of Rajouri and Poonch to assess the problems of the locals living there.
The border residents, in the wake of continued firing and shelling by Pakistani forces, raised the demand for individual bunkers in their houses and, plots of land in safer areas away from the LoC.
Home minister Ra j na th Singh in his Jammu visit two months ago had also visited the forward areas of Now she rain Ra jo uri district.
“A high-level team of ministry of home affairs visited Jhangar, Lang ar and D han aka forward villages along the LoC in Raj our ito assess quantum of damages, problems faced by people, public demands and issues for a broadbased redressal planning,” Rajouri deputy commissioner (DC) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told Hindustan Times.
The panel assessed losses in various villages and held a detailed interaction with the public at the worst-affected Jhangar village.
Later, Mitra inspected the recently constructed individual bunkers in Lang ar and D han aka. They appreciated the bunkers’ design and construction quality.
The panel had also visited several forward villages along the International Border (IB) in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts on Friday.
After visiting Nowshera, the panel visited Po on ch town where they met Lo C villagers from Ba lako te, Men dhar,Saujian,S ha hp ur K er ni,KhariK ar mara and Digwar sectors. Po on ch deputy commissioner( DC) Tariq Ah me dZ argar told HT ,“Individual bunkers, adequate ambulance sand hike in compensation were some of the major demand soft he village rs .”
It may be stated here that hapless border residents on the LoC are regularly targetedby trigger- happy Pakistani forces.
Villagers living close to the ‘live’ borders in the state, especially in the Jam mu region, have consistently raised the demand for five marla plots in safer zones away from the firing range of Pakistani forces, individual bunkers in their houses to take refuge at the time of intense shelling, special recruitment drives in central forces for their wards, compensation for their lands acquired by the Border Security Force and army for border fencing, adequate ambulances and sprucing up hospitals along the borders. The panel shall return to Delhi on Sunday and submit a report to the home minister in the next few days.