After giving a befitting reply to “unprovoked” border shelling from the Pakistani side and smashing bunkers occupied by Pakistan Rangers, the Union Home Ministry has readied a foolproof plan to start construction of community and individual bunkers on ‘war footing’ in the region to ensure safety of border residents. The Centre has also decided to deploy bulletproof ambulances/mobile bunkers to ferry injured persons and evacuate stranded residents during cross-border shelling.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who arrived here on the second day of his trip to the State, visited RS Pura area on Friday and labelled residents of border villages as “strategic assets”.
Acknowledging their sacrifices, Rajnath said these people have made lot of sacrifices but their resolve to stand upfront was never shattered. “I salute their courage. I am proud of their commitment towards mother Nation”.
To motivate the border residents, Rajnath also made a slew of announcements, including raising of two border battalions for the unemployed youth of the border area and deployment of bulletproof ambulances and mobile bunkers.
Addressing a Press conference, Rajnath said the Union Home Ministry has sanctioned construction of 14,460 bunkers, including 1,431 community and 13,029 individual bunkers at an estimated cost of Rs415 crore, to ensure safety of border residents living in the direct line of enemy fire.
These bunkers would be constructed across border districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch across Jammu province.
Since beginning of holy month of Ramzan, the entire border belt across Jammu frontier witnessed intense cross-border shelling in which nine civilians lost their lives while four BSF jawans attained martyrdom.
Reading out a list of decisions of his Ministry, Rajnath said, “We have decided to raise a total of nine battalions, including two border battalions, two women battalions and five battalions of Indian Reserve Police to help the unemployed youth from these border areas.”
Rajnath said a quota of 60 per cent has been fixed for border residents in 5 IRP battalions and two women battalions, one each for Jammu and Kashmir province.
“During my interaction with the border residents, the local villagers had raised the issue of shortage of bulletproof mobile bunkers and ambulances in the area. After understanding their hardships, I have directed the authorities to provide five bulletproof ambulances for residents of border areas in Jammu,” he said.
The Union Home Minister also announced a landmark decision to give financial assistance of Rs5.5 lakh per family to West Pakistan refugees settled in Jammu & Kashmir.
Nearly 5,764 families will be benefited from this decision, Rajnath told reporters.
Reacting to the announcement, labha Ram Gandhi, leader of West Pakistan Refugees, who is spearheading a campaign in support of citizenship rights told The Pioneer, “I welcome the decision of the Union Home Ministry but we will continue to struggle for our citizenship rights. We have been deprived of our basic citizenship rights since 1947, we will not take rest, we will continue our struggle for the same.”
Rajnath said the Union Home Ministry has revisited scheme of giving Rs5 lakh for persons killed during cross border firing and ceasefire violations. Now this amount of Rs5 lakh will be directly credited to the account of next of kin and all conditions relating to fixed deposit have been removed.
The relief given to Kashmiri and Jammu migrants was increased to Rs10,000 in 2015. “Now we have decided to give 30 per cent hike. This amount will be increased to Rs13,000 per family per month,” he added. He said out of 36,484 refugees so far 12,763 POJK refugees have received Rs5.50 lakh compensation package while Government is issuing advertisements seeking applications from the left out families.