"The issues relating to residents of border areas needs a special focus by the Centre and the state government. It seems these people have been abandoned by the administration and have been left to fend for themselves in inhospitable conditions," she said in a statement here.
Mehbooba, who visited Charunda village near the LoC in Uri sector yesterday to meet the families of three villagers killed in Pakistani shelling on October 16, said she would urge the Prime Minister to make the Border Area Development Programme more purposeful in meeting challenges of daily lives of the people.
She said people in these areas were panic-stricken and for the first time after many years there was an environment of complete insecurity.
"It is unfortunate that priorities in these areas have again shifted from peaceful existence to the demands for safe houses, bunkers and bomb shelters," Mehbooba said.
She said the population in border villages face immense problems in absence of proper health care, education and civil supplies.
"The people in these areas are completely dependent on goodwill of the army for facilities of ambulance and fuel.
"The male and female population is required to prove their identity at every point which compromised their privacy, especially the women folk," the PDP president said. MORE
