JAMMU: Baramulla district accounts for the highest number of widows of militancy victims of Jammu and Kashmir, who belong to BPL families.
The total number of widows, currently receiving pension from the Social Welfare Department, is even more than the total number of widows of entire Jammu province.
According to official sources, 915 widows are registered with the Social Welfare Department in Baramulla who are currently drawing a monthly pension of Rs 750. In contrast to this, the entire Jammu region has 850 widows.
Baramulla is followed by Kupwara and Anantnag with 646 and 273 widows currently drawing pension from the State Government respectively.
Across the State, 3603 widows of civilians belonging to BPL families are currently drawing a pension of Rs 2.86 crores annually.
Shopian District has the lowest number of widows registered with the Department while Srinagar has little over 100 such cases.
In Jammu region, 264 widows are registered in Doda, followed by 152 in Rajouri and 121 in Kishtwar. Samba district has only one widow registered under the scheme. The winter capital of Jammu has 20 such cases registered with the Social Welfare Department while frontier districts of Poonch and Rajouri have 106 and 152 cases respectively. Udhampur has 8 cases while Reasi has 59 and Ramban 113 cases.
Similarly, there are 2330 beneficiaries who are registered as dependents of persons belonging to BPL families.
The government is spending a sum of Rs 1.90 crore on awarding them monthly pension of Rs 750. Kashmir region has 1866 such cases while Jammu region accounts for 464 cases.