Funds for Greater Baramulla unutilized, Baramulla constituency faces official apathy

Mir Iqbal
Baramulla constituency, represented by one of the tallest politicians of the State for last 12 years, is victim of the official apathy as Government has failed to provide basic amenities to the people of the area and develop the second biggest urban centre in Kashmir valley.
The Constituency is represented by former Deputy Chief Minister of the State and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who defeated National Conference candidate, Nazir Hussain Khan, by a margin of 6, 000 votes in 2008 Assembly elections. Baig polled 13, 019 votes and Khan 7621.
The inhabitants of this constituency say that some sort of developmental works were done for last more than a decade, like construction of buildings for District Hospital Baramulla, Kashmir University’s North Campus and development of few Public Parks in the town, but work on vital projects is yet to be started.
The dilapidated roads leading to traffic mess -on main and link roads, poor state of health sector, ever increasing irrigation problems, electricity crisis, drinking water scarcity, sanitation problems and Government apathy are the main problems the constituency faces.
Tahir Hassan, a businessman from main town Baramulla, said that Government has failed to meet the basic requirements of people in the town. He said the inhabitants of main town are suffering during rains and winters due to the absence of proper drainage system. “Whole town submerges into water in rains and all the main drains remain chocked due to the official apathy,” he said, adding, the Traders Federation Baramulla went to their MLA scores of times to get their problems addressed.
Maqbool Ahmad, a local shopkeeper, of the town told Excelsior that despite being the second densely populated city of Kashmir, Baramulla sans proper garbage dumping site because of which local Municipal Community dumps garbage in open in the bus stand. “People avoid bus stand due to the bad fowl emanating from huge piles of garbage that remains lying in the bus stand without any treatment,” he added.
The Bazaar Committee said that the town has been deliberately neglected. “Street lights are lying defunct since the day when these were installed. Nobody bothers to repair them despite repeated pleas to concerned officials and leaders,” they said.
The Committee also said that butchers dump waste directly into the river Jhelum, flowing through the town, has not only polluted the water body, but also became a threat as it has spread dog menace. “A slaughter house was constructed in the Jhelum market of the town, but that was not made functional till date due to the official apathy. There is nobody available in the town to listen to the genuine grievances of people in the constituency,” they said.
Er. Tariq Ahmad Mugloo, General Secretary, Traders Federation Baramulla told Excelsior that the town was neglected from last six years due to the incompetence of local leaders. He maintained that apart from parks, and macadamization of roads in the town, no visible change has taken place.
“The Baramulla area was taken for granted by the leaders and Government, which can be gauged from the fact that this year no District Board meeting has been organized yet,” Mugloo said.
“Government Boys Higher Secondary building was gutted two and half years ago, till date neither the building was repaired nor was new building sanctioned because of which students of once prestigious School are suffering,” he said.
The inhabitants also said that the development of Education sector in the area can be measured by the fact that till date Commerce Subjects have not introduced in Higher Secondary Schools of the town. “It is shame for the local representatives that our students, including girls, have to move from city to rural area of Rafiabad, 7 kilometers away from town, to attend classes of Commerce Subjects,” they said.
Similarly, the residents of this constituency said that medical facilities and necessary medical services are hardly available in the area. They said that a mega building was constructed for district hospital here, but maximum facilities are lying defunct due to the deficiency of staff in the hospital.
“Machines and necessary equipments for performing CT scan to patients were brought in the hospital last year, but it was made functional only three months before as hospital administration doesn’t have trained staff to run this facility in the hospital,” the inhabitants said. They said scores of other equipments are lying defunct in the hospital because of dearth of technical staff to run them.
“We approached MLA for the same, but he instead of sanctioning more staff members preferred to transfer honest doctors from the hospital who were later called back in the hospital for serving general public after residents of the area opposed the move of some vested interested persons,” Traders Federation said.
They said: “The hospital is short of medical and paramedical staff. We requested concerned authorities many a time but nothing changed on the ground.”
The inhabitants of Old Town, Kanispora and Sangri said that the MLA has failed to implement proposal for decongestion of over-crowded population here. “Government has announced that congested areas would be decongested by developing a residential colony for people,” the locals said.
They said that the proposed Greater Baramulla project has not seen the light of the day. “Rs 11.5 crore are lying unused with DC Baramulla for decongestion of Old Town,” the locals said.
The unscheduled power cuts continue to irk consumers in metered and unmetered areas of this constituency. Residents said that the power supply is erratic in rural areas of constituency.
The inhabitants said that at many places the electricity supply lines are tied on trees and are drooping posing threat to the lives of people.
Residents of Singpora, Uplana, Khaitangan, Nopora, Chandoosa, Pachar, Hudpora, Narwaw, Janbazpora, Khadinyar, Dardpora and Katiawal said that power was playing hide and seek and during night hours the supply goes off for hours together. They said that they were forced to pay the power tariff according to the curtailment schedule but electricity was not provided to them as per schedule.
The Sheer-Fatehgarh, Singpora, Uplana and Dardpora roads are in dilapidated condition and public transport refuses to ply in these villages due to which locals including students of these villages have to face a lot of incontinence.
People in general said that MGNREGA scheme benefitted only close friends and relatives of MLA or those people working in Block Development Office. They said contractors looted the Government treasures in the name of MGNREGA by using sub-standard material. Machines were used instead of mandatory manpower to execute the works in most of the villages.
The inhabitants of the area also accused the MLA for his failure to upgrade Irrigation system in the constituency. They said it has affected crops.
Javaid Baig, Personal Secretary to Muzaffar Hussain Baig, said that the MLA tried his best to develop Baramulla constituency, but the coalition Government of National Conference and Congress put hindrances in approving projects and sanctioning funds for them during these years.
He said that MLA Baramulla has spend every penny from his Constituency Development Funds (CDF) for the development of area, but was quick to add that these funds were little to bring any visible change on the ground.
“Even 10 percent of proposed work was not completed from last 6 years due to the paucity of funds,” he said, adding, Government has deliberately not released funds in the constituency for its development.
MLA’s PA said that it was present coalition Government’s incompetence that hundreds of crores of rupees were surrendered after Government failed to utilize these funds on time.
“We demanded repeatedly that a water supply scheme be sanctioned for the town, so that people won’t suffer due to the scarcity of water, but despite assurances by Government even CM himself nothing happened on ground,” he said.
Baig said due to the indifferent attitude of Government not even a single new project was started in the constituency for last six-years. “There were many projects started in PDP’s rule, MLA tried struggled hard to complete them in these years,” he said.
Baig said that MLA has recommended 46 projects for his constituency under NABARD scheme, but only 11 projects have been taken that too for whole district.
“We should not be discouraged that we were neglected, because Chief Minister himself failed develop his constituency,” he said.
Baig said that the MLA upgraded 10 Higher Secondary Schools, 19 high schools and six power receiving stations in the constituency. He said despite remaindering Government every time that work on Greater Baramulla Plan should be started on priority basis, Government didn’t bother.
“We have sent a proposal for the decongestion of Old town, but Government didn’t seem to be bothered about that,” he said, adding, road widening project in the town to decongest traffic was not taken into consideration in last six years.
He said: “Government didn’t improve the condition of North Campus of Kashmir University. Similarly, proposed tourism project to attract tourists from Gulmarg towards Baramulla was also thrown in the dustbin by the present Government.”
He admitted that power sector was not in good condition and said when State’s CM can’t rescue his constituency from the worst power crisis, how come people of Baramulla expect it from their MLA.
“MLA raised almost all the demands and issues in Board meetings and in State Assembly, but Government failed to work on them,” he said.
He said only routine work was done in the constituency and no special or projects of vital importance in the area were not taken by Government.
Baig said forget about starting new Irrigation schemes, already existing schemes are lying defunct as Government has failed to maintain and repair them in these years. “MGNREGA works were handed over to Panchayat members, so MLA has nothing to do with this scheme”, he added.
Baig also said that for keeping town clean, they have recommended some 200 sweepers to clean Baramulla town, but Government didn’t pay any heed to them, because of which town remains filthy most of the time.

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