WE THE PEOPLE
How long voices of thousands of Gowtapora villagers shall remain unheard?
They need safe drinking water, electricity, health-care facilities and road connectivity to lead normal life
By: Ajaz Ahmad Mir
Srinagar: With the introduction of Single-line Administration in J&K State, it was expected large multitude of rural population would not remain neglected and ignored, but remain in focus and their demands met without going through official rigmarole. It was maintained the officials of District Administration would remain in touch with people and address their demands with a high sense of seriousness and all official activities would remain transparent. But this basic concept seems to have been ignored by the concerned functionaries of Budgam District Administration as thousands of villagers of Gowtapora and its adjoining hamlets are face to face with acute shortage of drinking water and continue to get plunged into long shadows of darkness for days together. They have been craving for health-care, Vet-care facilities and effective road connectivity to improve their mobility, but all their pleas have fallen flat on the concerned authorities so far. Even for the treatment of their cattle, they have to travel to district headquarter as there is no veterinary unit available in the said villages. Most of the electric cables have outlived their utility with no one to replace them.
Despite release of huge sums of money by the Government of India for rural population under different Programmes, the State authorities have failed to react positively. They seem to have forgotten that rural pockets of the State have remained unattended for the last several decades. The rural pockets constitute above 60 per cent of the total population and as such deserve major share of annual budgets. The Jammu and Kashmir State was the first State in the country to realize this basic fact and launched unique scheme of `Single-Line Administration’ in late seventies. It was in the same year when the State Cabinet moved to Doda in a bus to attend local problems and redress their grievances on spot. The scheme remained operational till 1989 and since then District Board Meetings are not held at District Headquarters. This has caused a severe setback to the State population in general and to rural population in particular.
“We have been crying hoarse and moving from office to office to get our problems addressed but have failed to attract attention of the officials as none has ever come to our rescue so far. Even for drinking water, we are forced to consume water from a local Nallah, which is totally contaminated. Consumption of polluted water is responsible for the spread of water-borne diseases in our villages and mostly infants and female-folk have been falling prey to such diseases. Some fatalities have also taken place due to this factor. As far as electricity is concerned, we have worn out cables, which generally fall without any notice. Even barbed wire is being used to serve as conductors. The transformer installed in the village remains often non-functional with no one to replace it, plunging thereby our villages into shadows of darkness for weeks together. Our large number of cattle have perished for want of timely treatment. Even for human beings there is no health-care facility and pregnant ladies have mostly borne the brunt so far. Had there been well equipped Primary Health Centre available in our villages, the situation would not be so grim today. The condition of roads is quite bad and a bridge connecting our villages’ stands damaged and not reconstructed so far. Thus we are unable to have free access to the capital city of Srinagar. Some patchwork was done last year, which has again brought the road to square one. The private transporters have abandoned our routes, causing thereby indescribable inconvenience to our students. They are unable to reach their schools and colleges on time. The case of employees is all the more worst. The overall position of our villages is pathetic,” said a group of persons of Gowtapora and its adjoining villages.
Therefore, it becomes obligatory on the part of the authorities at the helm of District Administration to mobilize their field staff and get data collected for immediate redressal of their grievances. The authorities must understand that the villagers have remained under stress and strain for long. They need timely intervention for resolution of the issues being faced by them. The earlier this is done the better!
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