The Hindu : Rajasthan NGOs call for withdrawal of Army

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 20, 2002

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Rajasthan NGOs call for withdrawal of Army

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI AUG. 19. At a two-day meeting in Jaipur last week to discuss the drought in Rajasthan, the Akal Sangarsh Samiti, a network of 50 citizens groups working in 16 districts of the State, has asked that the Army to withdraw from the border districts in the light of the decline in hostilities between India and Pakistan and to use the resources thus saved for drought relief.

According to a press release, the samiti is concerned about "the hardships caused to the people during this severe drought by the continued unnecessary deployment of the Indian Army in the border districts.''

The samiti said the 1,040-km stretch of the border had been heavily mined and that stray cattle were either maimed or killed everyday and according to news reports at least 40 people had been killed so far. The meeting called on the Army to remove the landmines. No compensation had been paid so far for the casualties or the destruction of thousands of acres of crops in the mined areas. Also, the rural labourers who had been displaced were now on the verge of starvation.

Other forms of hardship caused by the deployment included people in some villages of Barmer, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, forced to walk 4-5 km for water because of the "massive quantities of water" used by the Army and valuable grasslands near the border becoming inaccessible for pasture because of the presence of the Army.

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