Baramulla: Disregarding the locals’ demands for safety bunkers close to their homes, the government has begun constructing two “community bunkers” for villagers living near the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri in north Kashmir.
At a time when cross-border firing and shelling between the armies of India and Pakistan along the LoC is at an all-time high, villagers are aghast that only two bunkers are being constructed and that, too, far from their homes.
Lal din Ahmad, the head of Churanda village, said that the villagers had long been demanding small bunkers for each family close to their houses, where they can take shelter quickly. “However, the government has started construction of two-room community bunkers in our villages, which completely fails to solve our problems,” he said.
Ahmad said that people in border villages live at some distance to each other, so it is not possible for a family to run and take shelter in community bunkers, especially at night. He further said that if the government had provided individual bunkers for each family, they could have maintained the bunker properly. “Who will take responsibility for the community bunkers?” he asked.
Nazir Ahmad, a resident of Uri town, said that a community bunker has the capacity of sheltering 20 people at a time, but the population of every Mohalla is more than it.
“A few families living close to the bunkers can take shelter in them quickly, but other people will prefer to take shelter at their homes because they cannot reach the community bunker in time, especially in night hours,” he said.
“Earlier there were scores of small bunkers for each family. Unfortunately they were destroyed or damaged in the 2005 earthquake. The government did nothing to repair them. Now, after a lot of struggle by locals, the government has started building these inadequate community bunkers,” Nazir Ahmad added.
In the past few years, firing has increased along the LoC. Due to public pressure, the Home ministry of the Government of India directed local governments to construct community bunkers for people living along the LoC in Uri and Kupwara sectors. In the past few weeks, the Roads and Buildings department started construction of community bunkers in these villages, but the people for whom these bunkers are meant for are completely dissatisfied with this token move.

Mushtaq Ahamd