Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 22: Serious discontentment is brewing among the voters residing in the areas along the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts over unending discrimination with them and they have decided to seal fate of the contesting candidates with utmost caution so that no politician would dare to play with their sentiments in future.
Though discrimination with them in various areas was continuing for the past several years but their anger has reached the climax now especially in the light of recent shelling and firing from across the International Border, which made their old wounds to bleed once again.
The recent hostility from across the International Border has given vent to their discontentment against the discriminatory treatment being meted out to them despite tall claims and promises by the politicians, who otherwise project themselves as ‘sympathizer’ of border people.
The main grouse of people living along International Border is that they are not being treated at par with the residents residing in villages along the Line of Control (LoC). Their complaint has all the justification as State Government does not have similar yardstick as far as compensation for human and cattle loss in the ceasefire violation on IB and LoC is concerned.
The State Cabinet Decision No.10 dated January 10, 1990 and Government Order No.GR/ME-30/ISA of January 29, 1990 which deal with compensation in case of human and cattle loss in the ceasefire violation is restricted only to the villages along the LoC. Hence, the residents of Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts living close to International Border are not getting benefit under this order.
According to the IB people, this discriminatory order was issued keeping in mind that major part of the LoC is in Kashmir valley while as in Jammu region only parts of Rajouri and Poonch districts fall under the purview of this order. “Though following recent heavy shelling from across the border enhanced compensation was given for loss of human and cattle lives but the same was provided under Security Related Expenditure, which is not a permanent feature”, official sources said.
Another reason behind discontentment among the people of IB is discrimination in percentage of reservation in Government jobs and professional colleges. While residents of villages falling on LoC and LAC are given 3% reservation in Government jobs and professional colleges but similarly placed IB villages have not been granted any such reservation till date despite the fact that they have been raising this demand for the past several decades.
“The IB people are also not satisfied with the utilization of Border Area Development Programme (BADP) funds as they are of the feeling that funds are mostly spent in the interiors and only 20 to 30% actually in the deserving areas”, official sources said. The people of border areas conveyed their resentment on all their pending issues to the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Shantmanu during his recent visit to some of the border areas of Kathua and Samba.
Notwithstanding the fact that around 58,547 kanals of land on the International Border has been rendered uncultivable due to fencing but neither the land has been acquired nor rental compensation paid and this is also one of the reasons behind serious discontentment among the people, who are of the opinion that those who represented them in the Legislative Assembly failed to vociferously raise and redress their grievances.
Similarly, no compensation has been paid for the crops on the land, which was acquired for raising border fencing. “On one side the Government is conferring undue benefit to the illegal occupants of State land under Roshni Scheme and paying compensation for the structures on State land coming on road alignments but on the other side it has denied the compensation of the crops to the border people”, sources said while disclosing that there are about 35,000 families in the districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua which have suffered due to discrimination on this front.
According to the reports, serious discontentment among the border people may prove detrimental for several candidates contesting Assembly elections as these voters have decided to use their franchise with utmost caution and after considering various aspects relating to their pending grievances.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Assembly constituencies in Samba district would go to polls in the Fourth Phase of elections on December 14 while as polling for the segments in Jammu and Kathua districts would be held on December 20.
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