Land for building housing settlement for retired soldiers identified
It takes only a drop of slurry to spoil a pail of milk, says Fayaz AhmadDar, a resident of Rakh-e-Arth, a sprawling former game reserve on theoutskirts of Srinagar, the capital of disputed Jammu and Kashmir.
Dar used the slurry analogy to show his resentment at the Indiangovernment’s plan to build a housing colony for retired soldiers.
“A housing colony for soldiers on even 10 acres of land is a big problemfor us. Soldiers will need security and that means a continuous movement ofsoldiers. If they are attacked, we will have to face the music,” Dar said.
A chunk of land at Rakh-e-Arth is one of several sites where the colonymight come up, according to revenue official Nusrat Aziz. She told AnadoluAgency that revenue officials in all 10 districts of Kashmir were asked toidentify land for the colony. A welfare board for soldiers will finallypick the site.
A similar proposal had in 2016 triggered protests by pro-freedom groups.
Masood Khan, the president of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, also known asAzad Kashmir, on Dec. 20 “expressed serious concern over Indiangovernment’s move to build the first military settlement in Budgam.”
A video in which a masked gunman threatened attacks on such settlementsappeared on social media in Kashmir last week.
India last year scrapped autonomous character of Jammu and Kashmir andopened gates for outsiders to buy land and take government employmentthere. Pro-freedom groups and even pro-India political parties fear thatsubsequent changes in land laws are aimed at settling outsiders to reducethe majority Muslims into a minority.
Abdul Samad Malla, an elderly resident of Rakh-e-Arth, told Anadolu Agencythat an exclusive housing colony for retired Kashmiri soldiers atRakh-e-Arth could be a precursor to similar projects for retired soldiersfrom outside.
“This is an explosive situation. We won’t allow any soldiers’ settlementhere. The government has failed to develop this piece of land for decades.Rather than developing this, it is creating problems for us who still cravebasic necessities,” he said.
Dar and Malla were formerly illegal residents of the Dal Lake, a sceniclake that is a major tourist attraction in Srinagar. Tens of hundreds offamilies had encroached on the lake, filled it with earth and builtdwellings. To prevent further encroachments and to resettle these families,the government started filling Rakh-e-Arth, a wetland that also served as aflood basin. The government of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir hadacquired about 1,000 acres to settle the displaced lake dwellers.– ‘They will face our resistance’
Twenty years down the line, only 630 dwellings housing anywhere between 700and 900 families have been constructed by the displaced people atRakh-e-Arth with government’s assistance, Nilofar Jan, an official of theLakes and Waterways Development Authority, told Anadolu Agency. Theauthority is the key government department overseeing the relocation of thelake dwellers. She said more than 6,000 families await relocation.
The colony looks like a wasteland dotted with shabby dwellings in variousstages of construction, shacks made of iron sheets, unpaved muddy lanes andthe main road dotted with potholes. Many lake dwellers are reluctant tomove.
Ghulam Muhammad Dar, whose family of six moved to Rakh-e-Arth a few yearsago, said he learnt about the proposed soldiers’ colony from an onlinemedia outlet.
“For the government thousands of us residents don’t count. Nobody cared toask us. They will face our resistance but if they come with armoredvehicles and tanks what can we do?” he told Anadolu Agency.
Overlooking Rakh-e-Arth residents is a massive camp of the Indian army inthe adjacent Sharifabad locality. The residents believe the camp could bethe reason why Rakh-e-Arth was marked as one of the sites for the soldiers’colony.
“What would stop them from connecting Sainik [soldiers] colony to the campthrough a road? In that case, Rakh-e-Arth would become another access routeto the Sharifabad camp and our colony a thoroughfare for army vehicles,”said Ghulam Muhammad.
– 3 military colonies in Jammu
Noted human rights activist Ahsan Untoo questioned the need for a soldiershousing colony in the “most militarized region in the world.”
“When an army convoy passes by on highways, all traffic comes to astandstill. This is a gross human rights violation. Patients, office goers,students suffer. Now imagine the situation of a soldiers’ colony in themidst of a civilian settlement,” he said.
Untoo cited examples of several places in northern Kashmir, like Kupwara,where India military camps in the proximity of civilian areas havecurtailed people’s movement.
Three Sainik colonies already exist in the Jammu province of the Jammu andKashmir region. Several Indian states also have colonies where subsidizedhousing is provided for retired soldiers. A plan to build the first one inKashmir fell through after protests by pro-freedom groups in 2016.
At the time of the protests, Tarun Vijay, a Hindu right-wing member ofIndian parliament, who had mooted the idea of setting up such colonies inKashmir in parliament, had told the media that “a Sainik colony would belike planting saffron in Kashmir.”
Saffron is the sacred color for Hindus and several of the ruling Hinduright-wing’s symbols, like flags, have saffron color. Vijay had said aSainik colony would bring “fragrance of Indianness and principal mainstreamof patriotic India to overcome the smell of stone-pelting and guns.”
When Anadolu Agency contacted Vijay, he said he was in a meeting. Asked ifhe would like to speak later, he said, “I don’t think so. This is not theright time.” Anadolu Agency’s calls to the Srinagar-based Sainik WelfareBoard went unanswered.
*The names of Rakh-e-Arth residents have been changed on their requests asthey feared reprisal.
Courtesy: Yeni Safak