JAMMU: With artillery guns booming along the Line of Control for almost two months now it is becoming difficult for the border residents living in the direct line of fire to carry on with their day to day life.
The school going children are suffering in isolation, businessmen are cursing their fate and house wives continue to struggle to protect their children and families and feed them despite facing hostile weather and surrounding environment.
Coupled with lack of State Government support, poor road network, abysmal health and education infrastructure the border residents have virtually nowhere to go.
Rough estimates suggested more than 50,000 people living close to the Line of Control in frontier districts of Rajouri and Poonch are adversely affected by the long spell of intense shelling after tensions between India and Pakistan broke out post fidayeen strike on Uri army camp on September 18, 2016.
Post surgical strike by India inside PoK, Pakistan army has been rattled and struggling to find a foot hold.
Majority of schools and other educational institutions are facing the brunt of frequent ceasefire violations in the forward areas. When schools are closed down they are converted into temporary relief camps.
Due to poor implementation of various flagship programmes for development of border areas the State Government has been forced by prevailing circumstances to close down the schools and other institutions and use them as relief centres to ensure safety of children and staff.
The health institutions especially those located close to the Line of Control continue to suffer at the hands of mandarins occupying high chairs of power in the civil secretariat.
No one in the State Govt has till date prepared a list of such health centres which can be upgraded to treat splinter/bullet injuries.
No disaster management authority has ever paid a visit to the border areas to chalk out fool proof strategy to accommodate border residents and rush aid/supplies to them in emergency.
Every time guns roar along the Line of Control or even along the International Border the border residents are worst affected lot and yet no permanent solution has been found to mitigate their sufferings and apply ‘healing touch’.
The border residents continue to wait for the elusive 5 marlas of plot promised by almost all the politicians belonging to all mainstream political parties.
Braving all these hardships, the border dwellers continue to stay put in forward areas and acting as solid line of defence in aid of foot soldiers of the Indian army, deployed along the frontiers of the mother nation.
Now with winter season approaching their miseries are going to be compounded as hostilities on the border continue to peak despite peace initiatives.
“We are living in and out of her homes for last two months. Every time guns boom from either side we feel unsafe and have to shift to safer locations”, residents of forward villages along the Line of Control told STATE TIMES.
“We cannot afford to shift from our homes and hearth permanently. We cannot survive in urban centres. We belong to this place and we harvest our land and survive in the lap of mother-nature”, the residents claimed advocating better infrastructural facilities and construction of community bunkers and personal bunkers would help them lead peaceful lives without facing the specter of losing their homes.