MHA delegation assesses damages due to cross-border shelling in Jammu & Kashmir

A resident living near the border points out damage caused to the wall of a government middle school by mortal shelling from pakistan, at Jhanghar area near the LoC. (PTI Photo)

A day after assessing situation along the international border in Jammu district, a high-level team from Union Ministry for Home Affairs on Saturday visited various forward villages along the line of control in Rajouri district to assess the quantum of damage caused by Pakistani shelling and also the problems faced by people.

They assessed losses in various villages and held a detailed interaction with the public at worst affected Jhangar village. The delegation headed by Rina Mitra, Special Secretary MHA comprised of Gyanesh Kumar, Joint Secretary Internal Security and Director MHA R K Swaraj Karmara. Principal Secretary Home R. K. Goyal, Divisional Commissioner MK Bhandari and Inspector General of Police S D Singh Jamwal also formed part of the delegation.

Deputy Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, DIG Deepak Slathia, SSP Yougal Manhas and other officers of District and Sub-Divisional Administration and police accompanied the delegation and briefed about the losses due to ceasefire violation, evacuation and rescue measures, rehabilitation, issues and demands. A detailed presentation was made by the Deputy Commissioner.

MLA Nowshera Ravinder Raina and MLC Surinder Choudhary along with local public deputations briefed the visiting team about the problems faced by public and demands.

People demanded relief on the patterns of natural calamities, crop compensation, special development package, reservation for youth in employment and education, allotment of plots, construction of more bunkers and provision of other essential facilities. They also demanded individual bunker for each family in villages along LoC.

At Village Langar also the local residents met the delegation and handed over a memorandum of demands including enhancement in compensation in case of loss of life or livestock and injury as well as damage to houses.

Later, the Special Secretary MHA along with the team of senior officers inspected the recently constructed individual bunkers in Villages Langar and Dnaka. They highly appreciated the type-design, quality of construction and convergence model with community involvement.

The visiting team also inspected two damaged schools wherefrom students were evacuated in July 2017 and visited forward areas to assess the threat perception and circumstances prevailing along LoC for a better understanding of problems faced by people.