In view of the heightened shelling by Pakistan troops that has claimed life of several people in Jammu and Kashmir, the government on Saturday sanctioned additional 400 bunkers for Poonch and Rajouri districts along the Line of Control (LoC). Two hundred individual bunkers will be constructed in each of the two districts.
An official spokesman said the government had directed that funds would be placed with the district commissioners through the rural development department to ensure speedy construction of these bunkers. The bunkers will get built in the next one month as per prescribed specifications.
According to locals, the bunkers are found to have been an effective response to cross-border shelling.
The Centre had last year sanctioned construction of more than 14,600 individual and community bunkers for the villages along the International Border (IB) and the LoC at a cost of Rs 416 crore. As many as 7298 of these bunkers were to be constructed in the Rajouri and Poonch districts where people were facing the brunt of unprovoked shelling by Pakistan.
However, residents of these districts were complaining that construction of the bunkers was being done at snail’s pace.