Dinesh Mahotra & Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 1

Girdhari Lal, a resident of Treva border village, is in Bishnah town in search of rented accommodation because his family members are not safe because of the shelling from across the border.It is not easy for Lal, a Class-IV government employee, to afford rented accommodation at Bishnah in Jammu district but he has decided to withdraw his fixed deposit as his family’s security is his priority. He has decided to shift his family to Bishan because death is looming large at his shelling-hit village.Girdhari Lal’s is not an isolated case. There are scores of families in forward areas who have shifted to nearby towns or villages without waiting for the authorities to set up camps. Tilak Raj of Allah village, which is situated on the International Border, was fortunate to get rented accommodation in Bishnah but there are many others who are still searching for a safe place to reside in. “Politicians and officers are repeatedly making big announcements about providing shelter to us at safer places but on the ground nothing has been done,” Raj alleged, adding that hundreds of families from the border belt of the Jammu region have taken accommodation on rent on their own at safer areas.Referring to today’s shelling casualties at Ramgarh, Tilak Raj said the killings had debunked the tall claims of the authorities.Sources told The Tribune the administration had decided to evacuate around 50 villages, displacing nearly 37,000 people, on the 198-km-long International Border. This decision has been taken after the Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked shelling on the International Border since morning. Already a few hundred people are staying in migrant camps set up by the administration but mostly people have arranged their own accommodation. “The intense shelling from Pakistan today made panic-stricken people leave their homes and head for safer areas. This forced the administration to officially evacuate villages to avoid collateral damage,” said a source in the administration. On the Line of Control too, people have been asked to move to safer places.

No ambulance to transport firing victims in Balakot sector

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 1

While killing of civilians due to unprovoked firing from across the border is going on unabated on the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border, the health sector in Jammu province is virtually paralysed. The situation is worst in the border areas where even ambulances are not available to take injured to the hospitals.Today shelling started on the LoC in the Mendhar sub-division of Poonch district. Some border residents received severe injuries in the firing but no ambulance was available to take the injured to the nearby hospital. The helpless residents took the injured in their own vehicles to the hospitals.According to reports, this morning Pakistan started heavy shelling in the Balakot sector of the Mendhar sub-division, resulting into injuries to some civilians. Locals immediately called for the ambulance from the nearby primary health centre (PHC) of Dhargloon but there was no fuel in it.“We have already sought an explanation from the authorities to fix responsibility for this negligence,” Sher Singh, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Mendhar told The Tribune.He said there was another primary health centre at Bharotee which was situated across the fencing but it was not well-equipped. So a huge chunk of the population living near the LoC was dependent on the Dhargloon PHC for shifting the injured to nearby hospitals in case of shelling from across the border, he added.In fact, Dhargloon PHC is not an isolated case. In most of the health centres in the border areas, ambulances are not available. There is strong anger among people against Health Department for not taking the issue seriously.Sources said six ambulances were available in the Mendhar sub-division but most of these vehicles were not fully functional. The sub-division needs 10 ambulances but only six are available that too in a bad condition.