*Many completed ones remain unused due to groundwater
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 29: In a blatant act of compromising on the safety of the border dwellers, the Rural Development Department of J&K Government is soft-paddling on the construction of bunkers which were sanctioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs last year for the border areas of Jammu. Moreover, half of the bunkers constructed till date could not be put to use because of filling of groundwater and for want of solution to this problem.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in a major step towards protection of border dwellers, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in the month of December last year had released Rs 3 crore for construction of 60 modernized bunkers for the people of border areas while giving its nod for construction of thousands of bunkers in five border districts of Jammu region—Jammu, Samba, Kathua along the International Border and Rajouri and Poonch districts along the Line of Control in a phased manner.
These 60 bunkers were to be constructed along the International Border on pilot basis in the border areas of Jammu district and Rural Development Department of J&K Government was chosen for the task. It was conveyed that each bunker would be constructed with a view to accommodate maximum of 20 persons at a cost of Rs 5 lakh.
However, only 15 bunkers out of total 60 approved by the MHA have been constructed by the Rural Development Department till date thereby establishing the dilly-dallying approach on the part of Block Development Officers (BDOs) of 7 blocks of border areas which were chosen for the construction of bunkers, sources regretted.
“The work on 30 bunkers is going on at snail’s pace while as the same is yet to be taken up in respect of 15 other bunkers”, sources informed, adding whenever the issue of soft-paddling on the part of BDOs in construction of bunkers figured in official meetings unfounded grounds like monsoon season were shown as reasons.
They further said, “the excuse of monsoon is implausible as there was enough time till July this year, when the rainy season began, to complete the work on bunkers”, adding “ensuring time-bound completion of bunkers was never given any serious thought by those at the helm of affairs in the Rural Development Department”.
What to talk of under-construction and yet to be constructed bunkers, even eight out of 15 bunkers constructed till date could not be put to use because of filling of groundwater, sources said, adding the concerned Block Development Officers instead of analyzing the underground water table by consulting the concerned agencies started construction work as a result of which eight bunkers got filled with groundwater.
This is notwithstanding the fact that it was explicitly told to the Block Development Officers at the start of work 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.
The bunkers which have been filled with underground water are situated in Arnia, Pargwal, Marh and Akhnoor areas and 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.
“All this has established that priority works of the Union Government don’t receive required seriousness in Jammu and Kashmir”, sources remarked, adding “by adopting dilly-dallying approach in construction of bunkers sanctioned by Ministry of Home Affairs the field functionaries of the Rural Development Department are compromising on the security and safety of border dwellers”.
However, there is not any problem with 30 other bunkers which were constructed by Jammu district administration under Border Area Development Programme (BADP), a scheme of Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
“The State Government should pass necessary directions to all the concerned BDOs to complete work on all the bunkers as expeditiously as possible and find out solution to those filled with underground water so that objective behind this step of Union Government could be achieved”, sources stressed.
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