Give benefits to only those affected by shelling, say border residents

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 20

Residents of villages along the International Border (IB) on Friday approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), demanding reservation benefits for the areas directly affected by the Pakistan shelling and firing.

They opposed to the Centre’s decision to provide reservation and other benefits meant for the border dwellers to ‘non-border’ residents by fixing the distance limit of an area from the border to 0-10 km instead of 0-5 km.

Under the banner of the Border Sangarsh Samiti (BSS), border residents met SHRC member Chander Mohan Sharma and apprised him of the problems being faced by them.

“We requested the Commission to take cognisance of the Centre’s decision and extend the reservation and other benefits to only those who are directly affected by the Pakistan shelling,” said Yashpal Saini, a senior BSS member.

Saini said they requested the SHRC that the government should be impressed upon to pay Rs 10,000 per month per border family, a tenement per family in safer zones and waiving the power dues of border dwellers.

On June 25 this year, the Centre sanctioned filling up of 2,000 posts of Special Police Officer from the youth of the state living in the areas from 0-10 km from the International Border, Line of Control, Line of Actual Control and the Actual Ground Position Line.

The border dwellers, however, expressed their displeasure over the distance limit from the border and demanded reducing it from 0-10 km to 0-5 km.

Samiti members who met the SHRC member were Raghuvir Singh, Basant Singh, Girdhar Gopal, Kamaljit and Roshan Gupta.