Border villages await promised plots

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 25

Twenty months have passed but border residents have still not got five-marla plots which were announced by Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh at Hiranagar in January, 2015.

Though the Union Cabinet on Wednesday announced Rs 5 lakh compensation each for the victims of cross-border firing along the Indo-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, Kathua and Samba residents feel betrayed by the government as their main demand has been ingnored.

Jitendra Singh on January 7 last year, in the Hiranagar sector, had announced a 5-marla plot each for affected border residents at safer places. "As much as 3,100 kanal land has been identified for it and 5,000 families will be relocated at identified places," he assured the border firing victims last year.

He had also announced the release of Rs 5-crore crop compensation package that had been pending with the Defence Ministry since 2001.

“Jitendra Singh is the only representative of Jammu and Kashmir in the Central government. His words mean a lot to us. But he betrayed us as none of his promises have been fulfilled,” said Chain Singh, a resident of Samba district.

“Rs 5 lakh compensation to the family of victims cannot provide us safety from the heavy shelling from the other side of the fence. We need a safer place to reside at the time of tension on border,” he added.

It is to pertinent to mention that at the time of heavy shelling from Pakistan, these villagers migrated from to a safer place. The state government arranged their stay at government schools, community halls and temples near the national highway.

“The government remembers us only at the time tension on the border. We don’t want to leave our homes, but have no other option at the time of shelling,” said Som Singh, lambardar of Chachwal village on the international border.