The demand of the people living along the zero line in Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sector has been falling on flat ears for six decades in the past. The real picture of the frightened households who are exposed to firing and shelling from across the zero line is rarely told. Their plight seems to be nobody’s concern. Why has not the Government been able to give these people their due share of development in different areas is a big question. For ordinary health problem, the people have to travel anything between six to ten kilometres to reach a dispensary or a medical assistant for help. Schools, if these are provided, are mostly of no use because the teachers have been invariably playing truant. There is no accountability and the people getting fed up with the situation no more want to send their kids to the schools.
But the worst deprivation of the people along the zero line is absence of connectivity. There are no towers close to the zero line which could provide mobile telephone connectivity facility for the local people. Despite the fact that last year the member Parliament emphasized on the authorities of BSNL to improve connectivity by raising towers, nothing has happened on the ground. It has been authoritatively learnt that the mobiles of people along the zero line often catch the signals coming from the towers raised by Pakistan on the other side of the LoC. If Pakistan can bring connectivity to their side so close to the zero what hinders our telecommunication authorities from providing same facility to our own citizens? The right thing is to provide as many facilities as is possible to the people living in dangerous conditions along the LoC. They cannot be neglected and left to fend for themselves. It is unjust and at the same time fraught with very serious consequences. We need to own these people and make them feel proud to be the citizens of India.
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