Jammu, May 8 (PTI) In a significant development, the Jammu and Kashmir tribal affairs department on Sunday flagged off 40 trucks for transportation of livestock and families of migratory tribal population from various districts of Jammu to the highland pastures in the Valley, an official said.

The trucks, procured by the department through the J&K Road Transport Corporation, have been deployed both on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and the Mughal Road linking the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu region with south Kashmir's Shopian district, he said.

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The transportation system put in place by the Union Territory's tribal affairs department will reduce the travel time of the migratory tribal population from 20-30 days on-foot to one to two days while it will also help in smooth management traffic, the officials said.

The nomadic tribes mainly the Gujjar and Bakerwal people undertake seasonal migration to their summer destinations in the Valley with rise in temperatures in the plains of Jammu and return before the onset of winter every year.

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More trucks are being inducted this year by the department to ensure coverage of all families, the official said.

Secretary, Tribal Affairs Department, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has committed to provide transportation support and transit facilities to the migratory tribal population.

Directions were also issued by Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta to ensure saturation in transport facilities and to cover 100 per cent migratory population on the national highway and the Mughal Road, he said.

Choudhary said funds to the tune of Rs 6.80 crore have been released in favour of the J&K Road Transport Corporation (JKRTC) for procurement of trucks to provide transportation facilities to the migratory tribal families.

The finance department has advised the tribal affairs department to avail the services of the JKRTC for the movement of the tribal population till a formal policy in this regard is framed by the government.

Choudhary said the deployed trucks shall ply along the national highway from Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur, and on the Mughal road axis, from Rajouri and Poonch to various destinations in Kashmir.

The tribal affairs department is establishing transit accommodations at eight different locations for the convenience of migratory tribal population involving financial implication of around Rs 28 crore, he said, adding two transit accommodations are nearing completion.

There was persistent demand from the migratory tribal community that they face a lot of hardships during migration due to traffic jams and other hindrances and to make their journey smoother they should be provided some transportation.

It was observed that sometimes due to harsh weather conditions there was loss of livestock and other damages causing a lot of inconvenience to the affected families.

The budget announcement for Jammu and Kashmir made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned transportation vis-a-vis transit facilities to be provided to the migratory tribal population.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)