Govt to take up issue with MHA for use of SRE funds
Exercise to identify shelling-prone areas quite cumbersome
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 7: As Pakistan directly hit civilian locations during India’s Operation Sindoor post April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, the District Magistrates of five border districts in the Jammu region are likely to draft and submit proposals for construction of both individual as well as community bunkers depending upon the requirements.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
Official sources told the Excelsior that a detailed assessment on the requirement of bunkers will be carried out by the administration in five border districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch in this region after which a report will be drafted by the District Magistrates pertaining to requirement of individual as well as community bunkers.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to the border district of Poonch on May 30, which was hit hard by Pakistani shelling in the town targeting houses and religious places, had announced construction of more bunkers in the border districts.
Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts are located along the International Border while Poonch and Rajouri districts share Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in the Jammu region. Pakistan mostly targeted civilian areas on the LoC in Rajouri, Poonch and parts of Jammu district.
According to official estimates, there are 9500 bunkers in the border areas of the UT which include five border districts of the Jammu region and two (Baramulla and Kupwara) in the Kashmir valley. The bunkers were constructed at the cost of over Rs 400 crore.
“The District Magistrates will identify total number of bunkers required to be constructed in the areas falling under the range of Pakistan shelling. Both individual and community bunkers will be identified separately for construction,” the sources said.
They added that the exercise is cumbersome and could take time as the administration has to identify areas which can come under Pakistan shelling. Previously, such areas were identified close to the LoC but during Operation Sindoor Pakistan used long range mortar shells which fell as deep as Rajouri and Poonch towns which will make the exercise lengthy as more such areas need to be identified in the border districts.
While announcing special compensation of Rs 2 lakh for heavily damaged houses and Rs one lakh for partially damaged houses in Pakistan shelling in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Katra yesterday also referred to nearly 10,000 bunkers constructed by the Central Government in the UT which saved many lives during the shelling in civilian areas.
“While there can be some community bunkers, the ultimate solution lies in construction of individual bunkers in the areas which are under shelling range of Pakistan,” the sources said, adding requirement of such bunkers surfaced after Pakistani troops used long range mortar shells to hit civilian areas in Poonch and Rajouri towns killing 16 civilians-13 in Poonch and three in Rajouri including four children, two of them siblings, and JKAS officer.
Sources pointed out that the border villages where people have individual bunkers, didn’t witness migration with people preferring to stay in the bunkers after cleaning them as they hadn’t been put to use since February 2021 after India and Pakistan reached ceasefire agreement.
“Construction of individual bunkers in the left out border villages as well as border towns will go a long way to solve the problem of migration in the event of conflict,” the sources said, adding once the proposals are submitted by the District Magistrates the UT Government is expected to take up the issue with the Union Home Ministry as the bunkers had to be constructed under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE).
As per the officials, such a heavy damage to civilian houses and commercial establishments was never witnessed in past, which was seen during Operation Sindoor.
The Indian Armed Forces under the ongoing Operation Sindoor had targeted terror infrastructure and military installations deep snide Pakistan and PoJK from May 6-10 causing huge devastation including killing of a number of terrorists. In frustration, Pakistan targeted civilians on the LoC.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
