The government will raise nine battalions across Jammu and Kashmir in its continued efforts to better the security of the residents in the state, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday.
A couple of these battalions meant to strengthen the country’s anti-Pakistan operations will be exclusively for people in the border regions, while two others will be all-women—one in Jammu and the other in Kashmir, he told a press conference. The rest five will be part of the Indian Reserve Battalion.
The announcements, made in Jammu after a two-day trip to Kashmir, came hours after the minister visited Srinagar and north Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara. There, earlier in the day, he had a stopover at RS Pura sector, which Singh described a “victim of heavy shelling” from the western neighbour.
“Pakistan had resorted to heavy shelling along the LoC (Line of Control) and the IB (International Border),” he said. Further, 14,460 bunkers would be constructed at a cost of Rs 450 crore in that region, where people had been complaining about lack of defensive military fortification. J&K will also have five new bullet-proof ambulances, added the minister who, earlier, reviewed the state’s overall security situation and preparedness ahead of the upcoming Amarnath pilgrimage this summer.
Singh described the people living along the LoC, IB and the working boundary as “India’s strategic asset”, and announced a nearly seven-fold hike in the compensation for the border residents. A family bereaved in border violence will get Rs 5 lakh each instead of the present Rs 75,000. The money will be directly transferred to their bank account, what with the removal of existing specifications on fixed deposits. “Their morale is very high. I feel happy about it,” he added.
As for loss of livestock, the minister said the compensation amount will from now be Rs 50,000 per cattle-head instead of Rs 30,000. Also, an earlier limit of compensation to three cattle will no longer apply.
Regarding recruitment to the proposed battalions, Singh said there would be a 60 per cent reservation for the border residents. The two women battalions will have 2,000 recruits.
To a question on the country’s Maoists, the minister said they were fighting a “losing battle”, given a substantial decrease in their activities. Earlier, the country had 135 districts under the influence of Maoist extremism; today that is limited to 90 districts. The menace would end like the extremism in the Northeast, where extremism has come down by 85 per cent, he added.
