To leave or not, their dilemma

Praful Chander Nagpal

Our Correspondent

Fazilka, September 30

Border area villagers are in a dilemma whether to shift to safer places or no after the district administration told them to leave their villages as a precautionary measure after a surgical strike by India against Pakistan on Wednesday night.

A survey conducted by The Tribune reveal that most of the villagers whose villages are located up to 10 km from the international border are not keen to abandon their standing paddy crop, livestock and houses.

“We have sent our women folk and children to our relatives place. But, we will stay here to take care of our crops and livestock,” said Surinder Singh of Kadar Baksh village.

“Our main concern is that our standing paddy crops will be damaged if not allowed to harvest in the coming few days. We will have to face financial losses at this juncture,” said Satnam Singh of Mumbeki village.

Complete calm prevailed in the border district of Fazilka till today evening.

Official sources said nearly 2.25 lakh villagers in 151 villages situated along the Indo-Pak border in 10 km periphery in Fazilka district have been adversely affected and told by the administration to shift to safer places as a precautionary measure.

“Nearly 40,000 people have left their respective villages out of which only about 2,000 have reached 31 relief camps set up by the administration in the district,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner Charandev Singh Maan.

He added that most of the villagers residing in border villages in the Jalalabad subdivision of Fazilka district have refused to shift.

Principal Secretary (Power) A Venu Prasad has visited the relief camps along with Deputy Commissioner Isha Kalia and assured the evacuee villagers of every possible help.