Displaced families await rehabilitation
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Sarya-Jhangar (Nowshera), August 12
Vijay Kumar, in his sixties, is a distraught man. Tears well up in his eyes when he thinks of his home.

Vijay’s family has been dislocated four times ever since the country was partitioned in 1947. He, now, lives along with his family in this border village, which lies in the firing range of the Pakistani army.

Although the government had rehabilitated the border migrants of Khour and Pallanwala, who were dislocated during the Kargil war, it failed to rehabilitate these people.

Vijay, along with his parents and brother, migrated from his native village in Khamba Qilla to Sarya village here, just yards away from the Line of Control (LoC), during the country’s partition in 1947. Vijay said that was the first time when his family was dislocated. Hoping that it would be their permanent abode, the family constructed a house in Sarya village.

However, his family was again dislocated during the Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971. The family was forced to seek refuge in Nab village and Siot village, respectively.

When the wars ended, the family decided to return back. But, much to their dismay, they found their house in ruins due to shelling and firing from the Pakistan army.

During the Kargil war in 2000, Vijay’s family was left with no other option, than moving to a safer place. The family shifted to Bagnoti, only to return back here in 2005.

“It is not easy to be dislocated from one place to another. We were dislocated four times. For us the pain is unending”, Vijay said.

“The fear of being dislocated is so intense that many families like ours don't even construct permanent houses. We are living in temporary mud sheds”, he added. “Every time there was unrest between India and Pakistan after 1947, we were told by the government to shift as our houses fell in the firing range of the Pakistani army”, Vijay said.

“However, even as we suffered, the government never bothered to rehabilitate us in safer areas. We were provided a tent to live in. We have been living like this for years now. Now we don’t even complain”, he added. Echoing a similar tale is Surjeet. His family is one of the more than 60 such families, who were also dislocated four times, ever since Independence.

Surjeet said: “Even as the government did rehabilitate the border migrants of Khour and Pallanwala, who were dislocated during the Kargil war, we were forgotten, despite having been dislocated four times”.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and a local resident, Ravinder Sharma told The Tribune that these people had not rehabilitated by the successive governments. “Even as our government did compensate the border migrants of Khour and Pallanwala and sanctioned more than Rs 70 crore for their welfare, the border migrants of Nowshera, who have been dislocated four times, have not been given anything”, Ravinder said.

“Though the government is constructing colonies in safer areas for migrants of Khour and Pallanwala, it must do something for the border migrants of Nowshera”, he added.

Meanwhile, senior officers in the district administration refused to comment on the issue.