National Conference on Saturday expressed grave concern and anguish over total neglect of border dwellers, rendered homeless due to intermittent ceasefire violations especially on the International Border, and sought their secured rehabilitation on war-footing basis.
“In run up to the recent assembly elections, the BJP leadership had evinced lot of interest towards the problem and made liberal promises to border residents but soon after the polls these turned out to be just hoax”, Provincial President and MLA Nagrota Mr Devender Singh Rana said while addressing a press conference at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here this evening.In a statement issued to KNS he was flanked by MLA Bishnah Dr Kamal Arora, who has been relentlessly striving for safe and secured rehabilitation of the border dwellers.Rana said frequent visits to the affected areas by BJP top leaders, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the party President Mr Amit Shah were just photo-ops and attempt to exploit miseries of the sufferers for votes. They were more interested in ballot and least concerned for the bullet-victims. In the post election phase, none of the elected 25 BJP MLAs got time to pay a return visit to much exploited border dwellers, as they remain busy in lobbying for plump portfolios and induction in the ministry, he added.
Rana said BJP had turned deaf and dumb on the plight of border migrants and asked as to how much time it takes for planning and firming up relief and rehabilitation. “They have all the time to explore possibilities of forming the government but literally not a moment to express a word of solidarity towards the hapless residents”, he said. “In such a grim situation, Dr Kamal Arora MLA National Conference and his workers are campaigning for seeking minimum possible respite for the affected people”, the Provincial President said while taking a dig at those promising moon but ending up in providing just Rs 1,500 per house-hold.
Rana described the condition of border dwellers and situation in the forward areas really bad and made a passionate appeal to the media to play their pro-active role in awakening the policy planners in New Delhi towards their problems. “Once getting focused, the border peoples’ condition will force the rulers to think about them”, he said, adding that they needed immediate rehabilitation in terms of allotment of plots and construction of houses for their safe living. He said the people have been craving for peace and safety in the region. To a question on the statement made by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh about plots being identified for border sufferers at Hiranagar, the Provincial President said issue is to be addressed in totality.
“Along with Hiranagar, all the affected areas are required to be covered”, he said, adding that it was not just an issue of a particular parliamentary constituency but the entire Jammu region.Replying to question, MLA Bishnah said the people of border areas are in a pitiable condition and crave for attention of the governments in New Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. He regretted that nobody from Delhi visited these areas post-elections to take stock of the situation obtaining in the area.Arora referred to the visit of former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and said a detailed proposal had been drafted for relief and rehabilitation of the affected areas. He said he will meet Governor N N Vohra along with a delegation from the area to seek approval of the proposal by the Centre on immediate basis.Arora gave a detailed account of the sufferings of people and hoped that the Governor’s Administration will wake up to the challenge and take earnest steps to mitigate the problems of the people.Prominent among those present during the press conference included State Vice Presidents Mr Rattan Lal Gupta and Th Kashmira Singh besides Jugal Mahajan, S S Bunty, Iqbal Wani and Sajjad Shaheen.