Mir Iqbal
Bandipora constituency, in North Kashmir district of Bandipora, seems to be the victim of Government apathy and inefficiency of successive local representatives. People lack basic amenities including healthcare, road connectivity, drinking water, electricity, education and irrigation despite receiving the funds from additional sources including NHPC, Wular Manasbal Authority for its development.
The Constituency is represented by Nizam-ud-Din Bhat of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who defeated Usman Abdul Majid by a margin of around 800 votes. Bhat polled 13051votes and Majid 12231.
Inhabitants said that they have been discriminated by the successive Governments on every front and all the political parties have failed to deliver as per aspirations of people and promises made with them.
The inhabitants alleged that rivalry between local leaders of different political parties in the constituency halted most of the developmental projects, resulting in major loss to the constituency.
“One party leader doesn’t want that credit of any major project work should go to the leader of the other party hampering developmental work,” Haji Khazir Mohammad, a local said, adding, “influence was used at party level not to grant funds and projects for the development of constituency, but to halt the works or delay the release of funds.”
People in general said that the ill-planned execution of various Government schemes like construction of Mini Secretariat, establishment of Government Degree College (GDC) in an isolated place, construction of Maternity Hospital in flood channel at Pazalpora has literally “ruined” the town.
“The town has no Master Plan,” Ali Mohammad, a retired Government officer said. He said that Bandipora town had a development plan much before Srinagar Master Plan, but it remained one of the most neglected towns due to the local representatives’ inefficiency.
“Our local representatives’ focus remained either to spread terror among people in the area or give benefit to their close friends and relatives who took away the lion’s share in maximum Government schemes without benefitting the common people of this constituency,” they said.
The inhabitants said that the absence of the ruling National Conference (NC) leadership in the constituency can be the reason that much attention was not given to the vital issues in the constituency.
People are tired of frequent traffic jams in busy town during peak hours and lambasted the MLA for his failure to implement the Rs 36 crore Bye-pass project from police lines to Papachan, which would have decongested the traffic.
“The situation is worsening in the town as the existing narrow roads are in dilapidated conditions,” they said, adding, particularly main road of the town leading to DC office and hospital was damaged due to movement of heavy vehicles of the HCC.
The construction works on District Hospital at Nabrapora, GDC Bandipora has started several years ago, but are yet to complete due to casual attitude of the MLA.
“There is no ENT surgeon, pediatrician in the district hospital,” they said, adding, other facilities including old standard of X-ray facilities, single radiologist and dearth of other necessary staff was the reason of worst medical care in this district headquarter.
One of the doctors posted in the hospital said that the building structure was faulty because of which not only patients suffer, but staff members also face a lot of inconveniencies. He said: “Lift was constructed in such a way in the building that it drops patients and visitors inside operation theatre, which disturbs doctors in the theater and there is also threat of infection.”
The traders’ body of the town said that the old drainage system has failed to drain the water in rainy days due to which rain water enters into their shops, streets and houses.
They said the town lacks proper parking space because of which people face a lot of inconveniences. “The town remains dirty for most of the time as local Municipal Committee doesn’t seem bothered about the hygiene of people,” they said, adding, there was no proper space for disposal of sewage in the town and tons of sewage remain scattered for days.
The locals of Aloosa village which houses more than 1400 households said their village was neglected by successive legislators because of which this largest habitation sans even basic necessities till date.
They said the village with scores of small habitations in its catchment area has no Fire and Emergency Service Station. “Several tragedies happened in the past which devastated property worth lakhs due its absences in Aloosa area,” they said.
Inhabitants said that the area caters to more than 30, 000 population of Aloosa and its dozens of small neighbouring villages lack basic health facility. “A dispensary was established in 1953 in the village, since then it was not upgraded,” they said, adding, “the dispensary has one BUMS doctor and lacks other basic requirements including proper space, medicines and Medicos”.
Residents of Dangar Nar, Chotiwara, Halmatpora, Sheikh Muqam, Ketson, Chichinar, Benlipora, Aloosa- Ghat, Kanlibagh, Gurdal and Paribal also sans basic amenities.
The electric supply in the area, villagers complained, is very much erratic. “We get only few hours of electricity a day while at times the villages reel under darkness for days,” the inhabitants said.
They further said that the electric wires are fraught with danger and can lead to a mishap as they are passing through windows and rooftops of the houses. “The Power Development Department (PDD) has not even erected electric poles at many villages”, they added.
The villagers also complained that some areas remain plunged into darkness for months after minor damages to the transformers.
Locals complained that people close to the MLA have ration cards of Below Poverty Line (BPL) despite working in Government departments, while as “genuine” BPL families are left out and have to purchase ration at APL rates.
Abrar Ahmad, a local resident of Aloosa said that hundreds of families are not provided ration at Government depots because they weren’t given ration cards till date, while families having close proximity with MLA are sanctioned more than two ration cards each. “Ration cards meant for economically poor families under Antadaya Anna Yojana (AAY) scheme have been distributed among economically well off people,” he said.
Residents demanded that a Government Degree College should be established in Aloosa, so that more than 2000 students of the area need not to visit Bandipora town.
They said a technical institute was needed to train educated unemployed youth in the area to make them self reliant. “There is maximum dropout rate after 12th standard due to non-availability of college in the local area,” they said, adding, most of the families can’t afford to send their wards for higher studies to the town.
Residents said that there was shortage of timber in the area and people use imported timber for constructions. They alleged that timber of local forest is being supplied to other areas, whereas, locals have to suffer. “More than 7500 feet timber has been sanctioned to village Aloosa six years ago, but was not distributed till date,” locals said.
They said only 9-feet road was macadamized this year because of which chances of accident are more.
The inhabitants said that the area is facing the water scarcity and also accused the Public Health Engineering Department of providing contaminated water to them.
They said the water supplied to the villagers is highly contaminated as the Government has failed to construct a filtration plant in the area.
“Few water supply schemes in the area have become totally defunct due to which many villages are facing water crisis,” said the villagers. They said the PHE Department has not constructed the tank at proposed place leading to failure of the schemes.
“Water Supply Scheme Khan Mohalla and Check Mohalla have been left incomplete. The department laid only pipes but failed to connect it water source till date,” they said.
“Women have to walk several miles to fetch water from streams in chilly winter and hot summers in many hilly habitations,” said the villagers.
They said PHE provides them potable water through tankers, but the tankers provide water only few days in week.
Locals said that their MLA has never paid heed to their repeated requests that they are forced to drink contaminated water or have no drinking water.
Residents of Ketson village, however, are happy that in the first time of their lives they were provided tap water. “We are happy that tap water is available in community taps few hours a day since March 2014,” Syed Shabir Shah, a local said.
They also said that road was macadamized upto Daki village and were hopeful road would be constructed upto their village.
“The village would be electrified very soon. Poles have been erected and wires have been laid,” they said, adding, solar lights were distributed among influential families while as deserving families left in lurch.
However, the villagers said kerosene was not provided to the families as per their requirements and storekeeper doesn’t provide them kerosene every month. They also said that there was no healthcare facility in the area and for minor complications people have to move to Bandipora town.
“14 cases of IAY were sanctioned in the village,” said Panchayat member, Mohammad Rafiq Turk. He, however, said that compensation was not provided to the families who lost land to the village road.
He said earth cutting was done for the road because of which many houses are in risk and Government didn’t construct bund to save the affected families.
The inhabitants of Bunlipora said that the villagers are facing water scarcity and the MLA has failed to sanction any scheme for them. Gulshan Mohalla residents also said that a transformer was sanctioned five years back but was not installed in the village till date.
Although, some parts of the constituency witnessed some sort of development like construction of drains, pavements, lanes and health centre buildings, but people continue to suffer due to absence of efficient representation.
The villagers said that their crop was worst hit due to sub-standard pesticides, and fertilizers and lack of irrigation facilities. “We used SKUAST-K recommended fertilizers and sprays, but still our crop was damaged due to scab and other diseases,” they said, adding, the farmers would take legal action against those people who have recommended these sub-standard insecticides and fungicides.
Most of the people in the area said that MLA is now spending his Constituency Development Funds (CDF) as the elections are near. “IAY cases are sanctioned to his workers,” they said.
The inhabitants said that more than 20 tube wells were dug in the area, but none of them was functional presently.
The road to Malangam village, which is 15 kilometers from the Bandipora town, is in bad condition. The villagers said that rains have washed away the top surface of road due to which people suffer a lot. “Sub-standard material was used for black topping of road, which didn’t remain for a season,” they said.
They said the area faces water scarcity as the PHE failed to utilize 50,000 gallon as tap water to the area. They said pipes laid in almost 30 years back were never repaired and a good quantity of pure water goes down the drain.
They alleged that the MLA has failed to channelize Rs 1.86 crores for a proper water supply scheme.
The inhabitants said that for 30,000 population in the area only one sub-center is functioning, which lacks doctors, medicine and other infrastructure.
They also said that one ISM dispensary was sanctioned for the area, but was not established till date despite several reminders to their local MLA.
Turkpora residents said that their village roads were never macadamized and half of the village remains cut from transport as the culverts are not enough in size for crossing any vehicle. They said there is no dispensary, veterinary, high school and other facilities available in the village with 600 households.
The angry villagers said that a water tank was constructed on their land but the water was supplied to other villages including Koil Muqam and Malangam.
The inhabitants of Ajas have similar grievances. They said Primary Health Centre (PHC) Ajas is in bad condition with no building, medicos and medicines. They said people have to move to Srinagar for minor problems.
Residents said that people face problems due to frequent power cuts and frequent transformer damages. The locals said that at many places wires are damaged and tied with tress due to lack of electricity poles.
People’s Democratic Party, MLA Nizam-ud-Din Bhat said he played an important to develop the Bandipora as much as possible he could.
“I would have loved to serve my people with sincerity and dedication, but some people created hindrance,” he said. There are some people, who don’t like that credit will go in my favour for serving the people,” MLA said.
He said people from a particular lobby not only tried to disrupt the development works, but also misused their position for not sanctioning funds for many important projects.
“Many projects were framed in such a way that are ill planned and ill designed with the intention that MLA won’t get credit for these works,” he said.
Bhat said two inter district roads via Sopore and Ganderbal upgraded in his tenure and scores of bridges of vital importance were constructed. However, Bhat said work on few bridges was delayed due to paucity of funds and negligent attitude of the Coalition Government.
He said Bandipora-Srinagar via Ganderbal road was closed for 10 years due to the presence of security forces, but it was his personnel efforts that that road was thrown open for public.
He admitted many roads in his constituency are in dilapidated condition, but added that crores of rupees were swindled by some people in nexus with NHPC, but the road was handed over to R&B in 2011 and efforts were on to improve the road conditions in the constituency.
He said for Bandipora constituency the present Coalition Government sanctioned only one road under NABARD scheme. “Rs 4 crores were wasted on Koneesa- Zubbal road due to the departmental negligence,” he said.
He admitted that many link roads were not repaired due to paucity of funds. “Many Gujjar hamlets were not covered due to paucity of funds,” he added.
He said none of the roads was covered under PMGSY. MLA also said except few link roads all the 70 town wards were properly maintained.
He said there was no proper road for Government Degree College, Bandipora. “The degree college is still running from one building. The projects started before 2008 are still incomplete,” he said, adding, the location was not suitable for the college, and added that previous MLA has done it on his behest.
Bhat said Government has no funds for its fencings and construction of road.
He said due to bad planning Polytechnic College has still road in dilapidated condition and was never upgraded. “Financial crisis was created in my area, because of which many projects were not taken off on time,” he said.
Bhat said the district hospital is like a Primary Health Centre (PHC) and PHC’s are without any facility including staff, medicines and other facilities.
“The drainage has turned defunct, traffic jams are worsening and there has been no improvement in power distribution in the town, as the ministry portfolios are lying with a particular party which didn’t want that credit will go to present MLA,” he said.
He also attributes these failures to the Government, saying the NC-Congress Government ignored the constituency in general as it was represented by an Opposition MLA and a selfish interest of a local leader in particular.
MLA said to decongest traffic in the market, the Government didn’t implement the Rs 36 crore bye-pass project from Papachan to police lines which would have reduced the congestion in the market.
“The sanitary condition of most of the wards has worsened due to the negligent attitude of BMC,” he said, adding, Rs 20 crores for sewerage was not approved by Central Government due to delay on part of Municipal Committee.
He said that Municipal Committee didn’t send plan on time for housing, sewerage and drainage of the town to Centre under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) between 2005 and 2008 leading to a great loss.
Bhat said lack of facilities at the 30-bed district hospital, which has only the infrastructure of sub district hospital, is forcing people to go to Srinagar.
He said for the improvement of power sector in the constituency many HT, LT and grid stations were improved in his tenure.
Bhat said he spent Rs one crore from CDF including Rs 30 lakhs from MP fund to improve the power sector in the area. “Score of un-electrified habitations of Gujjar were covered in my tenure under RGGVY,” he said. He said that people are suffering as there are not much funds in tribal plan despite a huge population of tribals in the constituency.
Bhat said normal funds were not enough to run the constituency spread over a vast hilly area. MLA said that many schools were upgraded, seven school constructed under RMSA and many Gujjar hamlets were also covered under RMSA.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel