Mohinder Verma
Zanskar Assembly constituency, covering an area of 7000 square kilometer at a height between 11500-23000 feet lies in the South Western part of Ladakh. Historically, Zanskar was an independent Buddhist kingdom ruled by its own king who happened to be the descendent of the king of Tibet. Later, it was brought under the rule of the then Maharaja Gulab Singh like the other parts of Ladakh when he conquered Ladakh through his great General Zorawar Singh in 1834 and subsequently became an integral part of J&K in 1948.
This Assembly constituency has one Sub-Division (area beyond Pensila Pass) and one tehsil (Sankoo, which falls on Kargil side of Pensila Pass). Zanskar was allocated a separate MLA seat in 1996 by taking its isolated geographical location, hard climatic condition and backwardness into consideration to represent the people of this most isolated region in the State Assembly.
The bulk of the voters of this constituency come from Suru valley in Kargil. Zanskar’s constituency has a total of 20,348 voters ( according to 2008 Assembly election) out of which around only 8,000 voters come from Zanskar and rest of the voters come from Suru valley as such the elected representatives is always come from Suru valley thereby resulting into discontent among the people of Zanskar Sub-Division.
The population of the constituency lives mainly in scattered hamlets, largest being Padum which is also the Administrative Headquarters. The reason behind backwardness of the constituency is poor road connectivity. Because of topographical features, the only access to Zanskar by road is across Pensila Pass through Suru valley in Kargil. This road remains open from June to early November and during the remaining part of the year Zanskar not only remains cut off from rest of the country but also from the district headquarters Kargil. During the peak of winters when thick blanket of ice engulfs Zanskar river, people make use of frozen river trek for to and fro journey by risking their lives.
Whatever difficulties in different sectors being faced by the people of Zanskar are the outcome of the poor road connectivity. Even the major portion of only lifeline of Zanskar is full of potholes and the overall condition of this road is miserable.
Though Government of India reportedly agreed in principle for widening and improving the condition of Kargil-Zanskar road last year, physically the work has not been taken up till date thereby indicating that not only respective State Governments even the Union Government is not paying special attention towards Zanskar, which is otherwise one of the favourite destinations of foreign tourists.
“Each and every tourist appreciate Zanskar after visiting the beautiful places of the Valley and expresses keenness to visit again and again but they have only one complaint—-bad connectivity”, Tashi, a resident of the area said during the random survey in the constituency conducted by EXCELSIOR recently.
“The poor road connectivity is a curse and certainly a huge stumbling block in the socio-economic development of Zanskar people”, he said, adding “had there been proper road connectivity by exploring alternate options our socio-economic condition would have improved a lot”.
Though the MLA of the area, Feroz Khan, who is also Minister of State for Science and Technology, has little role to play in ensuring proper and better road connectivity between Kargil and Zanskar yet the people are of the opinion that he could have at least got necessary improvement of the road carried out to minimize the difficulties being faced by the people and tourists.
“From the condition of Kargil-Zanskar road, you can easily gauge as to what would be the fate of road connectivity to scattered hamlets”, said Tashi Angchok, a resident of Randgung area, adding “several hamlets of Zanskar don’t have road connectivity at all while as many others have only kacha road link”.
“Despite being aware of the fact that roads are the lifeline for the people especially of area like Zanskar, our MLA has not taken any notice worthy step in this regard”, Nawaj Sultein of Stangday said, adding “what to talk of improvement in the condition of only road linking Zanskar with rest of the world, the MLA has even failed to ensure plying of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) buses for the convenience of the people”. He informed that only two-three private vehicles are plying on the road but that too at the whims and fancies of the owners.
The inhabitants of Thangsoo village were too found critical of poor road connectivity. “I think we will have to wait for one more century to see proper road connectivity”, Tashi of Thangsoo said. Astonishingly, many inhabitants of this village were not even aware of the name of their elected representative, which clearly points towards the public rapport of MLA, Feroz Khan.
The constituency has one Community Health Centre, two Primary Health Centres and some sub-centres but availability of doctors always remained a major issue although MLA managed to depute some doctors during his tenure. Notwithstanding the tall claims of the MLA and other authorities, health facilities are far from satisfactory in the area.
The availability of healthcare facilities can be gauged from the fact that people of areas far away from Administrative Headquarters are compelled to shift pregnant women either to Kargil or Leh well before the closure of Kargil-Zanskar road and such women remain away from their homes till the opening of the road.
In the absence of proper healthcare facilities, the people are still dependent on Ayurvedic system of Tibetan medicine locally known as Amchi. “There is Amchi practitioner in every village and had there been no local Ayurvedic doctor situation would have been miserable”, Sonam Rinchen of Padum said, adding “but this system of medicine is not sufficient enough when it comes to deal with persons suffering from a serious disease or need emergency treatment”.
As far as communication link is concerned, major portion of this constituency doesn’t have communication facilities and the need of the same is felt more when the area remains cut off from the rest of the country. Though this demand was raised by the people before the MLA and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil a number of times but no progress has been made till date and people are left totally unconnected especially during winters.
The fate of the education sector is almost similar to the health sector although a good number of schools were opened under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan during the tenure of Feroz Khan. The people are of the opinion that no focus has so far been laid on raising the quality of education by way of deputing adequate number of teachers.
“The future of our children is at stake as on one side harsh climatic conditions are affecting education and on the other side shortage of teaching staff is leaving adverse impact”, said people of several villages of Zanskar Sub-Division, who were camping in Leh to attend Kalachakra initiation, adding “our MLA is aware of this difficulty but we don’t know why he has maintained silence despite being part of the present Government”.
Worst is the condition of only Higher Secondary School in the area where there is shortage of Lecturers of different subjects. “This issue has not received any focus despite the fact that students of Zanskar cannot afford to visit Kargil or Leh to get education”, Stanzin Dolma said, adding “the situation is notwithstanding the fact that MLA of the area is also holding the Education Department portfolio”.
While the inhabitants of Zanskar Sub-Division were largely found dissatisfied with the performance of MLA and stated that MLA was not paying required attention towards all parts of Sub-Division, the inhabitants of Sankoo tehsil and adjoining areas had all praises for their elected representative. They are of the opinion that whatever steps were required to ensure holistic development of their areas have been taken by the MLA.
“Whenever MLA visits the Sub-Division he confines his meetings with some selected persons”, the inhabitants of Zanskar said, adding “we have not seen MLA visiting the villages along with the district officers to assess our difficulties and pass on the spot directions to the officers concerned”.
However, the inhabitants of Sankoo tehsil said, “the MLA is frequently visiting the area to take stock of our grievances”.
When contacted, MLA Feroz Khan said, “whatever problems the major portion of my constituency is facing is because of poor connectivity”, adding “we are vigorously pursuing release of funds for the widening of Kargil-Zanskar road besides ensuring expeditious work on upcoming Zansar-Lahul Spiti road link”.
He, however, admitted that even Zanskar’s link with Himachal Pradesh would not be of immense benefit and this road would also be fair weather. “The work on Zanskar-Leh road is also going on but the same will take time as 40 kilometer stretch of this road falls in hard rock mountains”, he added.
In this way, the MLA admitted that road connectivity woes of Zanskar people would continue for years together.
About the poor health facilities, he said, “I have tried to depute as many as possible doctors and para-medical staff in the health centres but it is a fact that problems are still there”, adding “Amchi system has now been linked with the health centres for the convenience of the people and Amchis are also being given honorarium”.
He claimed that health facilities in Zanskar are far better than other land locked areas of the State for which he has made strenuous efforts during the past nearly six years.
As far as power supply is concerned, Mr Khan said, “nearly 70% villages of the constituency are electrified and remaining have been covered under schemes of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy”, adding “some mini hydel projects are in the pipeline and on their construction the situation will improve considerably”. He, however, failed to specify any timeframe for their completion.
About education sector, he admitted shortage of Lecturers in the only Higher Secondary School of the area and said, “academic arrangements are being made to fill up the vacant posts”. He, however, claimed that there was no shortage of staff in the Primary and Middle Schools.
When asked about his public rapport, he said, “I never discriminated with any area of my constituency and ensuring holistic development would be my endeavor in future”.
He tried to substantiate this by mentioning that it was only during his tenure that Degree College for Zanskar was sanctioned and Science stream started in the Higher Secondary School, Padam. Moreover, he said that Tourist Reception Centre and Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology were also the outcome of his endeavors.
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