*Major set-back to plan of protecting lives of border dwellers
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 18: In a major set-back to the plan of Union Ministry of Home Affairs to protect the lives of inhabitants of the border areas during shelling and firing by the Pakistani troops, one dozen bunkers constructed near the International Border in Jammu district have been filled with underground water mainly because of the failure of the Rural Development Department to assess the water table before raising the underground structures.
As the money spent on the construction of these bunkers has gone down the drain even before putting these bunkers to use, the Jammu district administration has ordered an enquiry in order to fix the responsibility for such a serious lapse.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in order to provide protection to the inhabitants of the border people from shelling and firing from across the border by Pakistani troops, Union Ministry of Home Affairs last year approved construction of several bunkers along the International Border in Jammu district on pilot basis. The location of these bunkers was decided keeping in view their vulnerability to the firing from the Pakistani Rangers.
The construction of these bunkers was entrusted to the Rural Development Department with the advise that the concerned Block Development Officers (BDOs) shall look into all the aspects particularly level of underground water in that particular area before start of work on underground bunkers with the capacity to accommodate around 20 persons, sources informed.
It was also explicitly told to the Block Development Officers by the district administration through senior functionaries of the Rural Development Department that in case of high water table instead of underground bunkers, over-ground bunkers shall be constructed with bandh of sufficient height on the side facing the International Border.
However, the concerned Block Development Officers instead of analyzing the underground water table by consulting the concerned agencies started construction of bunkers as per the specifications approved from all the relevant quarters including Ministry of Home Affairs, sources said, adding “as a result of ignorance of this vital aspect about dozen bunkers have been filled with underground water and they are virtually of no use at present”.
They disclosed that bunkers which got filled with underground water are situated in Arnia, Pargwal, Marh and Akhnoor areas which are generally targeted by the Pakistani Rangers by resorting to firing and shelling. “Due to the slackness and non-seriousness of the concerned BDOs, the entire money spent on the construction of these bunkers has gone down the drain”, sources added.
“Due to this, the plan of the Ministry of Home Affairs vis-à-vis protecting the lives of the border dwellers from firing and shelling has suffered a major set-back”, sources said, adding “it is a matter of serious concern that these bunkers have been rendered useless even before being put to use by the border dwellers”.
The issue came up for discussion during the first meeting of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee-DISHA of Jammu chaired by Member of Parliament from Jammu-Poonch Parliamentary Constituency, Jugal Kishore Sharma and accordingly the District Development Commissioner (DDC) Jammu, Simrandeep Singh was asked to conduct detailed inquiry into the filling up of bunkers with underground water.
According to the sources, the DDC Jammu has ordered an enquiry to be conducted by a committee headed by ADDC Jammu and comprising of Executive Engineers of Roads and Buildings Department, Irrigation and Flood Control Department and Senior Architect.
“This committee will fix the responsibility for a serious lapse besides making recommendations so that these bunkers are put to use after some corrective measures”, sources said, adding “some additional expenditure would have to be incurred in order to make these bunkers usable as electricity fitting has suffered damages due to filling up of water”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Ministry of Home Affairs has sanctioned 60 bunkers for Jammu to provide safety and security to residents living near the borders when there is firing from across the border.
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