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Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Oct 3: As the eerie calm prevailed on International border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC) following the surgical strikes by India on terrorist camps in PoK on September 29, there is no end to woes of border denizens who continued to be the worst sufferers of border skirmishes for decades together.
This time the worries are even more as majority of people living in the border belts are farmers who had to face the displacement at such a time when their crops are ripe and were to be harvested within days.
The border people are mostly worried for their crops as they pray for peace so that they can harvest the crop otherwise their all hopes will be dashed to ground.
As about 12,000 people have already migrated from Pallanwalla and Jourian sectors in Khour tehsil and over 10,000 people have migrated from Pargwal, Kanachak, Suchetgarh and Hiranagar sectors in Jammu and Kathua districts during last two days of border tension, about 40 families migrated from Jamnaveli, Malabela , Pali Narsingpora in Pargwal Sector of Jammu district today. Some of them took refuge at Government Higher Secondary School Domana while others preferred to go to their relatives houses for night shelters.
“We are in great distress as on the one hand we have lost our days earning as those working as daily rate workers in factories, shops and doing other private jobs can’t attend them due to prevailing tension of shifting to make shift camps and on the other hand we are perturbed for our standing crops which are ripe and to be harvested within some time as well as cattle and school and college going children whose education has been affected due to out displacement”, said Joginder Paul who is putting up at makeshift camp at GHHS Damana.
He said a total confusion prevails at make shift camps also as over 200 people are camping in a single hall in these camps. “This way we feel humiliation as women especially grown up girls and boys who are strangers for each other have to pass the night in the same hall. Often there are quarrels over trivial issues but whom can we narrate our woes”?, he asked.
However, district administration has issued orders for opening of all schools in border areas from tomorrow except those schools where the border migrants are camping. An order to this affect was issued by Deputy Commissioner Jammu Simrandeep Singh today.
Parkash Chand, another migrant from Jamnaveli in Pargwal sector who is also camping at GHSS, Damana said the Government has applied two yardsticks for the people living on IB and LoC. The people on LoC were allotted five marlas of land by previous government after the mass displacement of people during Kargil war while the people living along IB were ignored totally when the inhabitants of IB as well as LoC area have to face same problems during border skirmishes or in a full scale war.
He demanded that the Government should provide tents to border people in make shift camps so that they can maintain their privacy to some extent. “We don’t need food etc and we can arrange our meals in case government provides us separate tents where we can maintain the privacy”, he added.
The border migrants said that they face problems of toilets in the make shit camps and the problem of their displacement is permanent feature as they don’t recollect that how many times they have been displaced since 1965 Indo-Pak war and last 27 years of Pak sponsored proxy war.
Though entire Pargwal Sector is within five to six kilometers of Pak firing range, the authorities said eight to 10 villages out of 22 villages in the tehsil are most affected where from the migration has taken place.
Almost all the people desert their homes during night hours fearing shelling from across and they either take refuge in makeshift camps or the residences of their relatives in other parts of Jammu which are not in the firing range. They however return to their villages in the morning to look after their fields and cattle.
The rumor mongers have compounded the problems of border people further. It was just today when some people spread a rumor in Pargwal area that government has started making registration and people will be provided relief on the basis of ration cards that a huge crowd reached the makeshift camps Domana and Muthi during the day to get themselves enrolled but later they returned after the concerned authorities informed them that no such order has been issued by the Government as yet.
The administration had decided to put some migrants in Forest Training School at Suwa to decrease the rush in schools but the Forest Department has not given its possession. The Pargwal which is the most vulnerable area as this entire belt is within the range of Pakistan firing, the authorities are trying to intensify the work on Palatoon bridge in the area so that the people can stay in their villages and leave only when there is shelling from across. With the construction of the bridge they can cover the distance to Khour within minutes.
The authorities have put up five make shift camps at various schools in Khour for people of 12 affected border villages of Pallanwala and Jourian while those who migrated from Kanachak and Pargwal are putting up in make shift camps at GHHS Damana, GHSS Muthi and Middle School Muthi.
Reports said that migration has also taken place from two border villages of Abdullain and Jodha Farm in Suchetgarh Sector of Jammu district and over 300 people from these villages are camping at IIT RS Pura and Bana Singh Stadium R S Pura.
Besides over 2500 people have also migrated from forward areas in Hiranagar sector to safer places.
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