Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 2: The people of villages including Kanyala, Kahpota, Madeen, Jandrah, Nagola, Ponthel, etc, led by social activist and senior Congress leader Rakesh Wazir, called on Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Simrandeep Singh and apprised him of the problems being faced by the arbitrary orders which prohibit the villagers from doing any repair, construction, modification etc within radius of 1 kilometer area of the 15 Ammunition Depot Kanyala in their own land without giving them any compensation or rehabilitating them.
They submitted a memorandum to the DC and explained that even the Rural Development Department was stopped from doing the small works, including the works of MNREGA etc, which is highly un- justified and un lawful.
The people asked the Deputy Commissioner that on the pattern of Kashmir, their case be recommended to Government for shifting of this ammunition depot to some other isolated site and land of the villagers be restored to them and day to day harassment of the villagers by the Army personnel be ended once for all.
Mr Wazir informed that the depot was commissioned some 50 years back and even after so many years, they were getting rent of only 800/- to 1300/- per year per kanal. He sought intervention of the administration at the earliest in the matter and revocation of the order issued by the earlier District Magistrate which does not allow construction of any structure within one kilometer of radius of Ammunition Depot. At the time of taking over of lands, it was assured that locals would be provided employment in the depot and now even labourers are taken from outside the State which is matter of great concern, he added.
The Deputy Commissioner listened to the delegation patiently and besides issuing on spot instructions for some of the items, assured sympathetic consideration and early redressel of the rest of the points raised in the meeting.
The delegation comprised of Capt Shiv Lal Dhingra, Sarpanch Mohan Lal Mengi, Bishan Dass, Karan Dutt, Romesh Kumar, Mohan Lal Dhingra, Naib Sarpanch Sanjay Kumar, Dhodu Ram, Ravi Kumar, Balak Ram and Abdul Karim.