Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Reiterating that the Narendra Modi Government is committed to address problems faced by people living along the border areas, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Northeast, MoS PMO, DoPT, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that this, nevertheless, requires a consistent approach because the problems faced by these people are diverse and peculiar.
Dr. Jitendra Singh was speaking to the representatives of FANS (Forum for Awareness of National Security) organization who presented him a memento as a token of thanks to the Modi Government for having announced Rs.80,000 crore package for J&K. Pertinent to mention that the FANS has been, for quite some time, pursuing the issues related to border States at different levels. The J&K package announced by Prime Minister on Saturday includes funds for border area people as well as provision for the recruitment of youth in forces and also for the payment of emoluments to the SPOs.
In general, Dr. Jitendra Singh observed that India’s borders are very extensive stretching from J&K across the Himalayas and in the North-East. Similarly, the problems faced along these borders are also extensive and varying in nature, he said.
As for J&K, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, his own Lok Sabha constituency of Kathua-Udhampur-Doda has a long stretch of border and one common complaint there is that the farmers on the International Border and Line of Control( LoC) do not receive adequate compensation in lieu of land procured for them by security forces and this issue has been taken up by him with the Ministry of Defence.
Similarly, he said, there was a demand to raise the compensation provided to the deceased and the injured people by border firing, which he personally took up with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and was assured that this amount is soon going to be raised to Rs.5 lakhs. The task of constructing permanent bunkers along the border for the people to take shelter in the event of sudden cross firing or shelling has already been initiated and this has been confirmed to him by senior authorities of both the BSF as well as Army, he added.
On account of frequent cross border firing, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, there was a common complaint that whenever people living in these areas are temporarily shifted to neighbouring areas, they are not certain about where exactly to take shelter but, of late, a large chunk of land in the vicinity of Hiranagar has been identified providing 5 marlas to each family for this purpose and a similar exercise would also be undertaken along the other borders.
Dr. Jitendra Singh disclosed that another issue is that of providing reservation in jobs and in higher education which is a provision available to children of people living along the LoC but not available to those living along the International Border. Referring to grants available under Border Area Development Programme (BADP), he said that various special welfare schemes are being initiated. At the same time, he said, from his own resources, he has initiated a process of constructing toilets along the border areas in his constituency and nearly 100 such toilets are already complete. In addition, under the new social security schemes introduced by the Modi Government, it has been made mandatory to provide insurance cover to all the families living in the border areas, he added.
Referring to North-East, which happens to be under his ministerial charge, Dr. Jitendra Singh referred to programmes like ‘Organic Farming Mission’ introduced by the present Government for upliftment of the living conditions of people along North-Eastern borders.
Naveen Kumar, Chairman, FANS and Executive Members including Rajesh Lamba, Suchitra Chhillar, Dr Anil Aggarwal, Surender Gupta, S.K.Sinha, R.S.Sehgal, Sonal Gupta and Sudhanshu Aggarwal were present on the occasion.
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