Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 27

Around 1,100 porters — 500 from Jammu, Samba and Udhampur and 600 from Pathankot and Himachal Pradesh — who were hired by the Army to port ammunition, food and medicines in Ladakh region during the 1999 Kargil war are still unemployed despite being promised jobs after the war.Devender Singh, 51, a resident of Samba, passed a stringent test conducted by the Army as a recruitment procedure for the post of porter and took the challenge in the hope to get a job so that he could earn livelihood for his family.“I am a conductor with a matador and have lost all hopes,” said Devender Singh.The porters allege that they were promised preference in recruitment in the Army but the government didn’t keep its promise.“Today, stone-throwers are a privileged class in our state who hit Army personnel, get compensations and are given government jobs. We helped the Army during the war as true nationalists but the government failed to recognise our contribution,” said Romesh Kumar, president, All-India Porters’ Union (AIPU).During the Kargil war of 1999, the Army had called for civil services from all over the country for a support system in porting medicines, food, ammunition and other essential supplies to various posts in the mountainous terrain of Kargil.Active participation came from porters of Jammu, Pathankot and Himachal Pradesh while the whole of the Kargil town stood in frontline as a guide to porters for scaling difficult terrain. No porter from the Valley volunteered for the service, he said.The AIPU president said for the services provided by them to the Army in Kargil, the government fixed an amount of Rs 3,600 per month which they got during the five months of war.“Thereafter, we were given certificates and an assurance that in any civil or Army recruitment, we will be given preference but it was a hollow claim,” he said.