Mir Farhat
Kokernag, famous for its spring and lush garden, has nothing impressive for its people on development front other than the garden which is frequented by tourists.
Spread along the foot of Pir Panjal hills in South Kashmir, Kokernag constituency is represented by Minister for Floriculture and Hajj and Awkaf, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed. The Congress candidate, Peerzada defeated Ghulam Nabi Bhat of National Conference by a margin of around 1000 votes in 2008 elections. Peerzada polled 13384 votes and Bhat 12114.
The constituency does not reflect any major improvement in its road, health care, electricity, education. Inhabitants of the villages complained about the erratic, unscheduled power outages, lack of access to health care facilities, and neglect in education.
Residents in most of the villages complained that they are drinking unfiltered water which is supplied to them thorough pipeline from Kokernag.
Sagam village which was “developed” as model in the constituency has nothing to show as model except the ugly Iron gate inscribed with the words ‘Model Village Sagam’.
A visit by Excelsior into the interior of the village showed shabby lanes, with stones dangerously protruding from the road surface, waiting to injure commuters’ feet, no drainage facility was visible along the narrow, muddy lanes and by-lanes. Locals rebuked that their village is being called a ‘Model Village.’
“Our village is model because we have damaged roads which have huge potholes, electricity is missing for days together, few street lights have been installed in the village,” said Hilal Ahmad.
Residents complained the Receiving Power station was built “here but the electricity is being transmitted to other villages. Our village has no power,” they said.
“Till now, not much has changed actually. Our village was better off without the Model Village tag. Funds sanctioned for the development of our village were not utilized in a proper, transparent manner,” said Abdul Rashid, an elderly man in the village.
Although the main road that snakes through the constituency is metalled and macadamized, yet all the inner, linking roads are in shambles with big potholes and no sign of macadam.
On education front, the students said they have few facilities, with schools having least infrastructure, and staff shortage.
“Some schools resemble stables. They have no washroom facilities. Our children are forced to defecate in open,” said Ghulam Rasool, a parent.
“Despite being repeatedly sent to Assembly with voters’ mandate our MLA has done nothing. People in the constituency have lost trust on him. We will think twice before voting for him next time,” chipped in another man flanking Ghulam Rasool.
Students studying in Degree College Kokernag said they have been taking classes in prefabricated sheds at Government Higher Secondary School. The students said they have no accommodation in the “temporary” college, ‘classrooms’ have damaged roofs, and the surface beneath is unevenly built of boulders. “We stumble on the boulders when we enter into the dinghy rooms,” the students said.
Students said only Arts subjects are being taught at the college and those who want to study science have to travel to Khanabal Degree College. New Degree College is being built at Irkumoo form the last five years at snail’s pace.
“All other degree colleges have been made partly functional, we fail to understand why it has taken so much time in our case,” said Gazanfar Ahmad, a student of the college.
Residents in other villages said they are facing huge problems due to the lack of ration and other essential commodities.
“Late supply of ration is the continuing problem in the area. We suffer a lot as it is not delivered on time,” said Mushtaq Ahmad Khanday, a young aspiring politician.
Khanday said electricity across the constituency is a continuing problem which the legislator has failed to address.
Villages like Dues, Duksum, Larnoo, Batpora, Kher, Shatro, Qasbinabo, Kherpora, Lisser and Matihando are facing continuous power cuts.
A small hamlet Kamraazi of about 40 households has no electricity at all, said a resident Ghulam Nabi Lone.
Connectivity to villages with bridges has been a failure. A bridge that connects upper villages of Kokernag with the main town are under construction for the last 3 years. Some villages like Bidihar have no bridge connectivity.
The 10-km road from Vailoo to Ahlan is completely dilapidated, with link roads to villages like Pahlipora from Mulmarg having completely damaged roads.
Inhabitants said that the MLA rarely visited the area since 2008. They said to register their complaints and make their grievances heard they make rounds of the Civil Secretariat and wait in beelines at his residence.
“But the MLA never opens his door to us. He behaves like a monarch. His guards and staff always tell us that ‘sahab chue awaur’ (Sir is busy). We know they have been directed by the MLA not to open door for us. They lie to us on behalf of the MLA,” the residents said.
They said they too have the power of vote. “We have the power of vote with which we will close all doors to power for him. We don’t need an arrogant and ‘not-reachable’ representative.”
With the constituency having over one lakh population, healthcare facilities are least available to the people.
Having a sub district hospital, nine primary health centers, people said these health centers are not manned by sufficient staff, including doctors and paramedics.
Altaf Ahmad, resident of Dodkul said the PHC in their village is dysfunctional and inhabitants are forced to take patients to sub district hospital even for First Aid.
Block Medical Officer, Kokernag, Dr Mohammad Yousuf Zagoo, claimed the sub district hospital receives around 500 patients in OPD including 300 new patients daily.
Dr Zagoo said the hospital is manned by 10 doctors, five B-grade specialists and 20 paramedics. He said the primary health centers are also providing healthcare to people who come for checkups. The BMO also claimed that the constituency has 23 sub health centers in different villages. But the residents said most of the health centers face staff shortage, and said their legislator has proved a failure to improve infrastructure in health.
Residents allege the benefits of the schemes for poor like MGNREGA and IAY are being reaped by MLA’s close workers. “Works that are to be done under MGNREGA are being allotted to the MLA’s workers, and the developmental works are being done in their areas which vote for him. Others are neglected,” said the residents.
Access to pure, filtered drinking water has been a “dream” to the villagers. “We are not provided filtered drinking water; we have been compromising with our health with the contaminated water,” said Sajad Ahmad Parray, a youth in Ahlan village.
The villagers in Takiya-Magam, Sonabrari, have been fighting Hepatitis-C from the last year. They said no treatment has been provided to them either by their legislator or the government.
“When the disease broke out the Government and our MLA announced to provide is free medicine and aid, but we have seen nothing,” said Shabir Ahmad, a resident.
He said when media highlighted the issue, some doctors from SKIMS visited the area and did screening tests and suggested some dos and don’ts to the people.
“The announcement about free treatment to the infected proved to be nothing more than hollow,” Ahmad said.
Repeated attempts made by the Excelsior reporter to get the Congress MLA, Peerzada Syed’s comments proved futile.
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