Compensation, rent denied to border farmers: NPP

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 6: J&K National Panthers Party (NPP) has claimed that land compensation and rent has been denied to many border farmers  in  Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu region.
Talking to media-persons here today, chief patron of the party Prof Bhim Singh (Ex-legislator) and chairman Harshdev Singh (MLA) disclosed that they paid visit to various border villages of Khour, Pallanwalla, Panjttot, Saiti, Gigdial, Mirpur, Sainth, Jawanbela, Pindi, Mirpur Kona, Pargwal and Kanha Chak and took stock of the situation in view of recent firing from Pakistani side and found that people have been deprived of the much needed attention from the Central and State Governments. They alleged that the Government has intentionally ignored the legitimate and genuine demands of the residents of the border areas.
They claimed that nearly 38,000 sq km of agriculture land along the Pakistan border in Khour, Jourian, Pallanwalla, Pargwal, Kanhachak etc has been under the illegal occupation of Government of India since 1971 where mines were planted for the defence purposes. This is the tragedy that farmers have not been paid a single penny of compensation of their land and not even the minimum rent.
The border villagers from this belt during visit of the NPP team complained that scores of people were injured in mine blasts but they were never paid any compensation. Not only this, the local residents born after 1997 have not been issued ration cards for mala-fide reasons. BPL cards were provided only to the favourites in violation of standing norms. The farmers were not being allowed to harvest their crops on the border beyond the cordoned line.
They further claimed that the NPP team shall visit  R S Pura, Arnia,  Nandpur, Ramgarh and Samba villages  to take stock of situation.  The party intends to submit a strong note to the Prime Minister of India after completion of this study tour.