Peace on India’s international border with Pakistan is of paramount significance and everything else comes next for first-time voters and centenarians in Jammu and Kashmir’s Jammu Lok Sabha seat.
The Jammu parliamentary constituency, spread over four districts of Jammu, Samba, Poonch and Rajouri and with 20 assembly segments, is polling in the first round of the seven-phased Lok Sabha election 2019 on Thursday.
Of the 2,740 polling stations in the constituency, 219 booths are close to the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) and have been declared as ‘hypersensitive’. The Indian Army and Border Security Force personnel have been put on a high alert along the India-Pakistan border in Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Jugal Kishore is seeking re-election from the seat and Congress has fielded its senior vice-president and former minister Raman Bhalla, who is supported by the National Conference (NC) from the Jammu seat. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not fielded any candidates to “prevent split of secular votes.”
As hundreds of voters lined up outside polling booths to vote on Thursday, several of them had the same thing to say.
“I voted for everlasting peace on the borders not for me but for the younger generations. During hostilities, our village, which has been surrounded by Qaiseraen, Kugg, Khanechak, Uchhe Bains and Kajlayal villages of Pakistan, bears maximum brunt of Pakistan shelling,” 103-year-old Sharma Ram of Suchetgarh, who was helped to the polling booth by his son, said.
{{/usCountry}}“I voted for everlasting peace on the borders not for me but for the younger generations. During hostilities, our village, which has been surrounded by Qaiseraen, Kugg, Khanechak, Uchhe Bains and Kajlayal villages of Pakistan, bears maximum brunt of Pakistan shelling,” 103-year-old Sharma Ram of Suchetgarh, who was helped to the polling booth by his son, said.
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Suchetgarh is barely 300 meters away from the Zero Line. According to official data, 2018 recorded the highest number of ceasefire violations at 2,936, by Pakistan troops in the past 15 years along the India-Pakistan border.
“Though there are long pending issues like compensation of land acquired for a border fence, construction of bunkers and compensation for cattle, I have also cast my vote today for an everlasting peace on the borders,” Haveli Ram, 82, also said.
Sardar Bachan Singh, 78, who also wants peace on the border, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government didn’t walk its talk in the past five years of its rule.
“Suchetgarh on Zero Line has 283 families comprising 2,244 people. This government, which boasts of constructing individual bunkers on war-footing, has constructed only five bunkers in this village till January this year. Thereafter, no work has been taken up,” he said.
Ramesh Lal, a marginal farmer, also echoed similar views.
“We constantly live in fear because Pakistan can open fire anytime. This government said that it has started constructing 19,000 bunkers but we have got five so far, which shows a big difference in their words and deeds,” the 47-year-old added.
He also claimed that no one in Suchetgarh has received the ₹50,000 compensation promised by the government for every cattle killed in the shelling by Pakistan. “Only some of the villagers have been given ₹30,000 each. The officials should be held accountable,” he added.
The BJP government claimed it has increased the compensation for cattle killed to ₹50,000 from ₹3000 to ₹4,000 given by the previous governments.
First-time voter Satinder Singh said that he grew up under the deafening sounds of gun-fire by Pakistan and wants the skirmishes to stop.
“I have seen people in my village getting killed and injured in Pakistani shelling during hostilities. Nothing is more precious than life. Therefore, this border firing should cease once for all,” the 18-year-old said.
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Nisha Chib, another first-time voter in Basti Gulab Garh, said that Pakistani firing and shelling was the main issue for people in the border areas.
“We have no option but to migrate during Pakistani shelling. None can feel the pain and agony of border dwellers. Development can wait but a permanent peace is desperately needed,” she said.
At the government middle school in RS Pura, retired honorary captain Rattan Singh, who fought in the war with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, was sore over what he called “criminal neglect” of border residents.
“My village Korotana Khurd, which has 200 families, is right on the Zero Line and during hostilities, we pay too heavy a price. This government should at least provide individual bunkers on priority so that human lives are not lost during Pakistani shelling,” the 87-year-old said.
He said not even a single individual bunker has been constructed in his village as yet. He also blamed the state revenue department for creating hurdles in releasing compensation for the land acquired from the farmers for the border fence.
Kartaro Devi, an 80-year-old disabled woman at Chak Mohammed Yar village who was helped by security personnel in getting to the polling booth in a wheelchair, said whoever comes to power should conduct a reality check to see how many like her get the pension meant for widows.
“I have cast my vote but I am afraid if those at the helm of affairs have time for landless farmers like me,” Des Raj said.