Proposed NSG hub at Pathankot may hit rough weather as villagers oppose move

The proposed move may run into rough weather as the memorandum (dated June 20) submitted to Pathankot deputy commissioner (on Thursday) and purportedly signed by several village residents, reads that villagers developed “the barren land into fertile one, the land was the main source of income (for many); and there were houses and several tube wells installed on the land in question”.

The memorandum signed by around two dozen people said the villagers should not be displaced. The memorandum was addressed to Punjab Chief Minister but routed via Pathankot Deputy Commissioner (DC) Harbir Singh, who said, “I will examine it and send it to the authorities concerned.

Jamhoori Kisan Sabha president Satnam Singh Ajnala said his organisation was opposed to the move. Jamhoori Kisan Sabha is a farm organisation based in the border region of Majha belt of Punjab.

“We oppose the move. It is not like we are opposing it tooth and nail. But, there is no need to set up this (NSG) hub in Punjab. There is land problem in Punjab. Such a hub should be set up anywhere in the middle of the country like in Madhya Pradesh. Setting up NSG hub right next to the border will not stop the nefarious activities engineered by the neighbouring country. Rather it will become a target. Such a facility for training should be set up in a state which is centrally located. Punjab is already short of land whether provincial or otherwise,” Satnam Singh Ajnala said.

Jamhoori Kisan Sabha general secretary (Pathankot district) Balwant Singh said, “The 103 acres of land, which the Punjab government has offered, is right next to the border. The government in the past had asked people to cultivate the land which otherwise was a forest land. People worked hard and cultivated the land. Now, we learn from news reports that the present Punjab government has offered 103 acres of that land free of cost to the Centre for setting up the NSG hub. This, despite the fact that people have constructed houses and installed tube well connections on that piece of land.

Balwant Singh said that they staged the sit-in and gheraoed the deputy commissioner’s office on Thursday as the DC was “not willing to accept the memorandum on June 20”.

Ending the almost four-year impasse, the Punjab government on June 15 had set the ball rolling on the establishment of a Regional Hub of NSG by deciding to provide 103 acres of land free of cost to the Centre, as desired by the Union government, at Sakol village (officially read as Skoll in correspondence between Punjab and the Centre) in Pathankot district, which shares international border with Pakistan on its west.

The NSG – which has a pan-India mandate for counter-terrorist and counter-hijack operations – had initially planned its regional hub at Amritsar to “bolster reaction capability” in North India, but later zeroed in on Pathankot to set up the hub.