The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh today met Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh and discussed with him the various aspects related to the construction of bunkers along the International Border (IB) and LoC in Jammu & Kashmir. He thanked the Home Minister for issuing orders allocating Central funds for construction of 13,029 Individual bunkers with capacity of 8 persons each and 1,431 Community bunkers with capacity of 40 persons each, to begin with. Dr Jitendra Singh requested Shri Rajnath Singh that, if feasible, the construction of bunkers should be carried out directly by a Central Agency like CPWD or NBCC for better monitoring and expediting the entire work. He also thanked the Home Minister for having approved yesterday the long pending issue of reimbursement of compensation to be paid by the J&K Government to the victims of cross-border firing as well as crop losses, livestock losses, damage to houses, etc.
Recalling the past sequence of events, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the construction of bunkers has been a long standing demand. He said that the present Government took cognizance of the demand and moved forward on it. Not only this, he said, initially the plan was to construct only the Community bunkers, however on a demand from certain sections for construction of Individual bunkers, the Union Home Ministry decided to fund a combination of both Community bunkers as well as Individual bunkers, as and where feasible. Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Union Home Ministry has responded to border area demands with great sensitivity and expressed hope that other issues like compensation for the land acquired, etc. will also be addressed in due course of time.