Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, May 18: On May 4, while the Indo-Pak borders were tense in view of the killing of 26 civilians, mostly tourists by Pakistani terrorists in Pahalgam’s Baisaran area on April 22 and India’s expected response to this dastardly terror act, a local Gurudwara in border Nikowal village in Suchetgarh Block of Jammu district made an announcement, appealing to locals to clean their individual and community bunkers for their safety.
Following the announcement, like other villagers, Sunil Kumar (32), son of Ram Lal of Nikowal, switched on the electric motor at his home to flush out the accumulated water in his household bunker since most of the individual bunkers constructed in the border localities have no facility to drain out the stored water other than pumping it out due to their alleged faulty designs.
The very moment Kumar stepped deep into the bunker, he suffered an electric shock, possibly due to a short circuit, resulting in his death. The only caretaker of the ailing parents, Kumar, who got married just five years back, is survived by a wife.
With Kumar’s death, enraged locals started approaching the elected leaders and the Revenue officials, while requesting them to get the “faulty” individual bunkers repaired.
On several occasions in the past as well, they have highlighted these concerns with the Panchayat leaders, Revenue officials, and other elected representatives but without any solution so far.
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“There are 4-5 individual bunkers in the Nikowal area alone which lack ridged roofs at their entrance unlike community bunkers, making them exposed to seepage during rainfall and also to shell-bursts during firing and shelling from across the border,” Vijay Kumar, a resident of Nikowal area, said.
“Under such circumstances, 2-4 feet of water gets accumulated in these facilities, making them unfit for usage during tensions.
“We’ve repeatedly called the attention of the local leaders and revenue officials towards this concern, but our requests have fallen on deaf ears,” he said.
Vijay Kumar said since Sunil Kumar has died due to the faulty design of the bunkers, the Government should consider his case for compensation to help his wife and the ailing parents.
Former Sarpanch of Treva Panchayat in Arnia area, Balbir Kour, echoed similar concerns, claiming, “No individual bunker has been covered at the entrance anywhere, and this leads to the accumulation of water during or after rainfall in the bunkers,” she said.
According to her, all the 30 individual bunkers in her Panchayat are without ridged roofs at their entrance.
“And I have highlighted these concerns with a visiting team of then Divisional Commissioner Jammu, then DC Jammu, and then IGP Jammu, on October 26, 2023, and several other occasions later, but without any solution so far,” Kour said.
The former village head, who was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his popular radio programme Mann Ki Baat as well, however, claimed that some 10 bunkers recently constructed by some individuals within their households sanctioned under the PMAY scheme are properly covered.
Kour also highlighted the concern of lack of electricity connections within the bunkers, making them unfit for use during the summers.
She said though people in her panchayat have moved back to their houses two days back, around 6 days after the cessation of firing on the borders, people are still alert due to untrustworthy nature of the neighbour, and under such circumstances, there is a dire need of covering the faulty bunkers and constructing additional ones with proper rooftops.
Similar concerns were raised by the people living in other border villages of Jammu, Samba, and Kathua districts.
Meanwhile, official sources said that a Government survey is underway to exactly know the number of such individual bunkers lacking proper ridged roofs at the entrance and to explore the possibility of constructing additional ones with proper rooftops in the sensitive areas.
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