Chandigarh: About 4500 militants are waiting across the border to be pushed into Jammu and Kashmir, Minister of State for Defence Chaman Lal Gupta said on August 17.

"The infiltration from across the border has actually increased in this month and 4,500 militants are waiting for an opportune time to cross over, but our forces are alert and we are committed to thwart the enemy's designs," he told reporters in Chandigarh.

Questioning Pakistan's sincerity in normalising relations with India, Gupta said, "For any peace talks to succeed it is important that they (Pakistan) first dismantle the infrastructure they have created to give a boost to terrorist activities."

"They should dismantle the (terrorist) training camps...the earlier they understand it, the better it will be for the interests of both the countries. Otherwise we will keep our options open," he said.

Lashing out at the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, Gupta alleged that the state government was "befooling" people with "gimmicks" like the healing touch.

"Thousands of schools, colleges and hospitals in Kashmir and Doda have been either closed or gutted during the past 13 year of militancy. The state government has never bothered to look into this. They talk about healing touch, but they have never talked about giving healing touch to Kashmiri Pundits who badly need it," he said.

Kashmiri Pundits have been uprooted from their homes in the Valley where they had been living for the past several centuries, he said.

"When Pundits started migrating from the Valley in early 90s, there were 13,000 employees belonging to the community working in the state government. But now there are just 2000 of them. Has the Mufti government ever bothered to create employment opportunities for the community?"

He said both the state and the Central governments should work for creating conditions conducive for their return to the Valley. "We have to give back their properties, their land and jobs to them before we can ask Pundits to go back."

Terming the People's Democratic Party (PDP)-Congress coalition as a "marriage of convenience", Gupta said the state government had backtracked from its pre-poll promise of implementing the recommendations of the Wazir commission that suggested creation of three districts in Jammu province. "Now they say it is too expensive, but it suited them when they wanted votes."

Earlier addressing a group of ex-servicemen, Gupta said six battalion of Territorial Army would be raised, two of which would be for Srinagar and the rest for Jammu.

The NDA (National democratic Alliance) government has been taking steps to ensure that the morale of the Armed Forces remained high, he said.

He said 227 health centres for ex-servicemen had been opened and it involved a recurring expenditure of Rs 500 crore. The government has allocated Rs 18,000 crore for providing married accommodation for the forces.

PTI