Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 20 : Expressing deep concern at the plight of people living along the LOC PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has said it seems these people have been abandoned by the civilian administration.
Interacting with the large number of people, who gathered at Churunda village on Friday where she visited the families of the three victims who lost their lives in border shelling, she said the people living in these areas have been left to fend for themselves in highly inhospitable conditions.
Mehbooba visited the homes of Mohd Shafi Khatana, Liyaqat Ali and Shamima, who lost their lives earlier this week in one of the worst violations of the decade long cease fire between Indian and Pakistani forces along LoC. She expressed her deep condolences and conveyed her sympathies to there families. She urged the Govt to provide adequate compensation to the families and take measures for their complete rehabilitation.
PDP leader told the gathering that she had urged the PM Dr Manmohan Singh to intervene in the deteriorating condition along the LoC and the international border in J&K. She said the population in these areas was panic stricken and for the first time after many year’s peace, there was an environment of complete insecurity in these areas.
Refering to the total withdrawal of civilian administration from border areas Mehbooba said the population there faced immense problems in absence of proper health care, education and civil supplies. She said the people in these areas were completely dependant on goodwill of Army for facilities of Ambulance and fuel. The male and female population was required to prove their identity at every point which compromised their privacy, especially the women folk.
Mehbooba said villages like Churunda which fell beyond the border fencing faced more acute problems of day to day life. She said failure of the Govt in upgrading the middle school in the village meant that the children had to travel miles to go to a high school through hilly tracks. Since forests were out of bounds for collection of fire wood the only source of fuel was Kerosene supplied by the Army as there was no trace of the public distribution system in these areas.
She said the issues relating to the residents of border areas needed a special focus by the State and Central Govts and she would urge the PM to make the border area development programme more purposeful in meeting the challenges of daily lives of the people. She said there is a large population of disabled persons in these areas and BADP should specially focus on this humanitarian issue. She said the problem of land mines in areas where civilians go for work too needed to be reviewed and the right balance struck between security requirements and civilian interests.
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