Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 26: Shocked over the miserable plight of the shell hit forward villages in tehsil Arnia as observed during the JKNPP’s whirlwind tour of Alah, Poal, Arnia, Tarewa and Slair on Monday, NPP chairman Harsh Dev Singh lambasted the callous approach of the State Government and its gross failure in dealing with the crisis on the borders which had forced the local residents to leave their homes and migrate to other places with the border villages wearing a deserted look.
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Talking to media-persons here today, Harsh Dev said that life along the border areas of Jammu has been thrown out of gear due to the heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan. He said that one Shakuntala Devi, wife of Chuni Lal at village Alah sustained critical injuries during the shelling and later succumbed due to the lack of ambulance and allied medical facilities. He said that her critically injured daughter- in- law, Rajni Devi was undergoing treatment in GMC Jammu but so for no ex-gratia to the deceased and compensation to the injured were announced by the Government.
He pointed out that the children, women and aged were the worst sufferers of the Pak misadventures who were looking at the administration for an immediate relief and rehabilitation to safer zones. Narrating the tragic tale of Govt’s apathy towards border residents, Singh disclosed that one Renu Devi, widow of Rakesh Kumar of the same village had been running from pillar to post to procure a Govt job in a vain attempt as her spouse had lost his life in a militant attack in November 2014.
Harsh Dev Singh divulged that during his extensive border tour, people from these villages apprised him of the acute power crisis, deficiency of doctors and paramedical staff in the Primary Health Centres, lack of ambulance service, shortage of proper bunkers besides defunct D-17 irrigation canal where water supply had been stopped resulting in damage to crops in village Tarewa, Chanana and Jabwal.
He said that senior local representatives brought to his notice that there were only 12 congested bunkers in the entire tehsil Arnia, out of which 6 were water logged due to improper excavation. Singh exhorted the Government to provide 5 marlas of residential land to each family at safer zones, ex-gratia compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the person killed in the shelling besides employment to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh each to the family of the injured.
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