Excelsior Correspondent
HIRANAGAR / KATHUA, Apr 13: Accusing successive Congress and UPA Governments of having discriminated against people living along the International Border (IB), Union Minister and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Parliamentary constituency Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that it was during the five years of the Modi Government that Union Cabinet approval was given to provide 3% reservation in educational institutions and jobs for youth living along the International Border in the Kathua / Hiranagar Sector.
Addressing a series of well-attended road-side election meetings throughout the day here today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, instead of Congress and its allies asking us as to what we have done for the people living along the border, it is we who should be asking them as to what was the underlying vested motive which prompted them to bring in a law granting 3% reservation for people living along the Line of Control (LoC), but not providing the same facility to people living along the IB. Did this not amount to the most inhuman discrimination between one section of youth living along one part of the border and the other section of youth living along the other part of the border, he asked. Was this because the Congress and National Conference (NC) had their vote bank along LoC and not IB, and had MLAs and Ministers elected from LoC while they were taking revenge from the people of IB for not supporting them.
The border area people had been neglected for the last 65 years, alleged Dr Jitendra Singh and said, that all that has been done for them was done only in the last five years. The Bunkers and Seema Bhawans are under construction with funding from the Modi Government and anybody can go and verify this. Similarly, over 600 Sulabh Sauchalayas have been constructed and over 500 more are planned to be constructed through funds raised by public distribution. Just before the Model Code of Conduct was to be imposed, one of the last orders from the Government of India was to lay down a special provision for setting up Mobile Towers along the International Border (IB) considering the problem of no mobile signal along the border villages.
Not only this, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to Jammu announced setting up of additional 5 to 9 Battalions to enable recruitment in Security Forces exclusively for the youth living in the border areas. Meanwhile, the compensation to the deceased during cross-border firing has been enhanced and the monetary compensation for the cattle killed during firing has been made unlimited depending upon the number of animals killed.
It is now for the Congress campaigners, Dr Jitendra Singh said, to answer why they could not do all this for the people living in the border areas over 60 years when they were in power both at the Centre and the State. They had been repeatedly making the announcements, while BJP Karyakartas, even when out of power, continued to hold protests and court arrest for the demands of the border area people. But the Congress Governments never paid any heed and it was only after the Modi Government took over in 2014 that all these steps were taken with the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.
Those accompanying Dr Jitendra Singh during these meetings included Chairman Hiranagar Municipal Committee Vijay Sharma, Chairman Kathua Municipal Council Naresh Sharma, former MLAs Kuldeep Raj and Rajiv Jasrotia, BJP District President Prem Nath Dogra, BJP State Secretary Raghunandan Singh, State Executive Member Janak Bharati, Surpanches, Panches and other prominent leaders.
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