Border residents raise their problems with Dineshwar

Dinesh Manhotra & Sanjay Pathak

Tribune News Service

Jammu/Samba, July 19

Bearing the maximum brunt of Indo-Pak hostility, residents staying near the International Border (IB) on Thursday demanded a comprehensive policy to resolve their problems caused by repeated displacement and unabated killings along the border.

During their meeting with Centre’s special representative on J&K Dineshwar Sharma, who was at Samba on Thursday, inhabitants of border areas, under the banner of the Border Kalyan Samiti, highlighted their plight and sought his intervention to resolve their problems.

Gopal Sharma, a member of the samiti, said after the meeting they told Sharma that border inhabitants were fed up with the promises of the successive state and Central governments. “Except making promises, nothing has been implemented on the ground and woes of people living near the IB are worsening,” he said.

Although IB dwellers have been hailed as “the biggest strategic asset” of India by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, they are victims of unfulfilled promises because assurances given to them, from time to time, are confined only on paper.

Gopal said the BJP had been making claims about constructing bunkers in the border areas for the past four years but nothing had been done so far. The government’s commitment to extend benefits being given to the residents living near the Line of Control (LoC) to the IB residents had also remained only on paper, he said.

As per the official data, a total of 457 villages with a population of 4,51,856 are located along the IB and LoC in Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts in the Jammu region. While over 1.50 lakh people are living along the 224.5-km stretch on the LoC in the Jammu region, remaining were staying along the IB. The total length of the LoC is 744 km and it is spread from the Akhnoor area of Jammu up to Kargil. The total length of the IB in the Jammu region is 198 km.

Except the residents of the IB, other border inhabitants are getting some incentives and benefits, especially reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. At present, residents of the LoC are getting three per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. There is a demand that same benefits should be extended to the IB inhabitants also.

457 villages located along IB, LoC in Jammu region

• A total of 457 villages with a population of 4,51,856 are located along the IB and LoC in Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts in the Jammu region. 

• While over 1.50 lakh people are living along the 224.5-km stretch on the LoC in the Jammu region, remaining were staying along the International Border. 

• The total length of the LoC is 744 km and it is spread from the Akhnoor area of Jammu up to Kargil. The total length of the IB in the Jammu region is 198 km.

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"Except making promises, the government has implemented nothing on the ground and woes of people living near the International Border are worsening." — Gopal Sharma, member, Border kalyan samiti