BJP State President Ashok Khajuria today visited Nandpur, border town of Vijaypur constituency, interacted with the local people there, took stock of the problems being faced by the farmers and later addressed a public meeting there.
Ashok Khajuria, while addressing the gathering, said that the farmers of Jammu region are facing a number of problems and the Congress-led coalition has failed to mitigate the same. Long power cuts are being imposed due to which the farmers can not pump out the water for irrigating the fields. It results into poor or sometimes no crops. The farmers do not get seeds and fertilizers in time. He said the border areas of Jammu region, particularly Kathua, Akhnoor, Samba, R.S. Pura and Ramgarh houses maximum population of the refugees from West Pakistan. These people are leading miserable lives. The three generations of these people have perished demanding citizenship rights but the successive state governments have only misled them by hollow promises.
The BJP chief took the state government to task for not disbursing rupees 37 crores sanctioned by the then BJP-led NDA government in favour of the borders people as compensation for fixing mines in their fields and for cattle fodder.
Commenting over the issue of allotment of five marla plots to border migrants in Akhnoor, Ashok Khajuria said these suffering people have been betrayed. The government, instead of granting ownership rights, have allotted the plots on lease basis. Not only this, about the promised assistance of rupees 50,000, it is now announced that this will be paid in two installments. He also criticized the state as well as the government at the centre for their total failure to check the prices of essential items. Even a middle class family is finding it difficult to survive and what to talk of poor ones.
Ashok Khajuria demanded immediate solution to the problems being faced by the farmers and refugees and disbursement of the rupees 37 crore compensation at the earliest. He assured the gathering that BJP is with them and that it will see to it that the days of miseries are over for the farmers when the party is party forms next government in the state.
Former Union Minister Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta, State Vice-President Chander Prakash Ganga, other party leaders including Gurbachan Singh, Karnail Singh, Darshan Singh, Master Ravi Singh, Master Dharam Pal, Sanjeev Sharma, Subhash Verma and Som Dutt Verma also addressed the gathering.