J&K govt identifies 25-acre land for military colony for ex-servicemen

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government has identified 25 acres of land in the Budgam district, to set up Kashmir's first military housing facility.

As reported by ThePrint, the colony is being primarily set up to provide housing facilities for retired armed forces personnel and their families, in addition to catering to widows and families of deceased personnel.

Three housing colonies already exist in the Jammu division, but plans to establish a similar housing facility in the Valley were unable to materialise due to political opposition from parties and separatist outfits. The transfer procedure of the 25-acre land will take place after all bureaucratic processes are completed.

It was reported that the Jammu & Kashmir Revenue Department had been coordinating with the Sainik Welfare Department over the past few months, in terms of identifying the ideal land spaces.

In terms of addressing concerns that active military officials would be accommodated in that facility, a central government official stated that "unfortunately, the establishment of the facility has been pending for too long because of all the misreporting that has been done on the issues”. The official added that "It has been said the government wants to bring in troops from outside and settle them here. It is simply not true. The proposed facility will first take care of ex-servicemen who are natives of J&K. They were state subjects and now domiciles".