BHOPAL: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday that 1400 bunkers will be built for safety of people residing in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Talking about the recent exodus of tens of thousands of residents from border areas in Jammu following prolonged shelling by Pakistani forces from across the border which led to deaths of many people, Singh said “those living in the border areas are not our ordinary citizens. We treat them as our biggest strategic assets, whose safety is of utmost concern to us.”
“My ministry has ordered building 1400 bunkers for the safety of our population living in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The state government has assured us that the secured bunkers will be built for our citizens within a few months,” informed Singh.
He also said that if Pakistan is unable to combat terrorism on its own, then India is ready to help it fight out terror. In Bhopal to inaugurate the new building of Central Academy for Police Training as well as brief journalists about the achievements of Narendra Modi led NDA government, Singh said for having cordial relations with us, Pakistan should first end sponsoring terrorism in India.
“Atankwad ko sponsor karna Pakistan band kare. Pakistan hamara padosi desh hai, uske saath hum behtar rishtey rakhna chaahte hain, yadi vo aatankawad se akele nahi nipat pata hai, toh apne padosi desh bharat ka sahyog prapt kare, bharat sahyog karega.(Pakistan should stop sponsoring terror. It’s our neighbour and we want to have cordial relations with it. If it’s unable to take on terrorism alone, then it
can seek assistance from its neighbour, India will support Pakistan in combating terror),” Singh told journalists.
When asked about the delay in the planned rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in their motherland, the home minister said “when Mufti Mohammad Saeed was the J&K chief minister, he had been told that budgetary allocation has already been made by the centre for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, but a few weeks later he passed away. Recently, his daughter and present J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti has assured us that land has been identified and will be finalized shortly for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.”
On BJP’s by-poll losses
When asked by scribes about the string of by-elections defeats for the BJP, particularly dismal performance in by-election results declared on Thursday, the former BJP national president Singh said “lambi chhalang lagane ke liye kabhi kabhi do kadam peeche bhi jaana padta hai, aage lambi chhalang lagayenge (for taking a giant leap, sometimes one has to take two steps behind. We’ll take a giant leap in future).”
In Indore, meanwhile, the union power and railways minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday that nothing much should be read into Thursday’s by-election results, as such by-polls are affected largely by local issues. The national issues will dominate the 2019 general elections and the results then would be diametrically opposite of Thursday’s by-poll outcome.
The home minister, while blaming the rising crude oil prices globally for present spurt in petrol and diesel prices in the country, said the government is working to resolve the issue. “We’ve ample foreign
exchange reserves and hence there is no problem as such for the economy due to it.” Interestingly, seven years back in 2011, Singh while being in opposition had blamed the then UPA II regime of using the excuse of rising global crude oil prices to hide its inability to prevent rise in petrol and diesel prices in the country.