JAMMU: With each passing day, the number of ‘temporary migrants’ from Kashmir Valley to Jammu is increasing.
From Jammu based schools to private clinics of doctors more and more Kashmiri children and patients are reporting to start their normal lives afresh.
Though majority of Kashmiris’ continue to stay put in the Valley but a sizeble number has already shifted their base after feeling suffocated due to prolonged cycle of violence.
Even several senior State government servants attached with Durbar Move offices have landed here in anticipation of fresh escalation in the violent incidents. According to a senior official of Estates Department, ” we have already thrown open several houses to accommodate senior officers and renovation work is currently on in several other flats and other houses to ensure they are ready at the earliest so that the senior officers can be accommodated comfortably.
Even the busy market places here in the city of temples and shopping plazas have started witnessing presence of Kashmiri population who used to arrive here after the shifting of durbar move offices in the last week of October.
Many residential areas, especially on the outskirts of Jammu have been recording arrival of Kashmiri families from different parts of the Valley and facing hardships in finding a decent rented accommodation. The local landlords are quoting higher prices and refusing to negotiate keeping in mind the surging demand for decent accommodation.
A leading pediatrician in Jammu told STATE TIMES, “large number of Kashmiri families, who are regular visitors to his clinic, have already started arriving here in advance. I am examining several Kashmir based children suffering from symptoms of viral fever and other communicable diseases. Several among them are here to complete the cycle of mandatory injections.
Quoting experience of one his regular patient, the senior consultant claimed, “My patients told me due to strict restrictions on the movement of people it was becoming difficult for them to survive. They claimed they had been kept hostage by a handful of separatists as they were only extending hartal calendar than doing anything meaningful to address the genuine concerns of the common masses.