Mohinder Verma
Like five other constituencies of erstwhile Doda district, the ground situation in the Inderwal Assembly segment, presently falling in the separate Kishtwar district and represented by the MLA Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, is not different as far as developmental activities are concerned. This constituency is also spread over hilly and mountainous terrain and the villages and hamlets are scattered as such by all methodology requires more focused attention in order to ensure holistic development.
Astonishingly, the focused attention remained confined to some areas while as many villages and hamlets failed to figure in the priority list of the MLA because of, what people allege, his biased approach. Contrary to the tall and repeated claims of the MLA, several areas of the constituency have remained underdeveloped and plagued with numerous difficulties mainly because vote bank is the yardstick for ensuring development and not backwardness of any area.
Undoubtedly, MLA has to his credit developmental activities in different parts of constituency but the same cannot be the only index to judge his performance during past over five and half years keeping in view various other factors like unattended grievances and developmental needs of many other areas, his neglecting attitude towards some areas because of having received less votes from there and failure to build pressure on the Government represented by the party he belongs to in ensuring special attention towards the backward areas.
During random survey in various parts of the constituency conducted recently by EXCELSIOR, there was general feeling that instead of focusing only on the areas from where the MLA received good number of votes during last Assembly elections, he should have paid more attention towards the neglected areas so as to become true representative of the entire Inderwal Assembly segment.
“Just focusing on the vote bank to win the elections should not be the criteria of any public representative as this creates trust deficit among the people of other areas and the same doesn’t augur well for the flourishing of democracy. Rather such an attitude of the public representatives creates discontentment and its fallouts come in different shapes”, said an elderly villager of Kountwara while wishing anonymity.
Kountwara does not have proper road connectivity and inhabitants of this and adjoining areas are covering huge distance on foot to reach district headquarter of Kishtwar and other major towns. “The foundation stone of road from Kandni was laid when Saroori was R&B Minister and the work was to be completed within 18 months but till date the fate of the road is hanging in balance because of least interest of the MLA”, Jeet Lal Sharma, a social activist said.
“In the absence of road connectivity, the people of Kountwara are being compelled to trek huge distance on foot before reaching motorable road and then other parts of Inderwal as well as Kishtwar”, he said, adding “there was also a proposal for construction of road between Drabshalla and Kandni but fate of the same is also hanging in balance”.
Similar is the status of electricity supply, health and education sector in this area and people are holding only MLA responsible for the same on the ground that he had received very few votes from this area during previous Assembly election.
Earlier, there was proposal to provide electricity to Butna, Mindarna, Bedwas, Henga, Khaura and Mardhal villages but the same was shelved allegedly on the intervention of the MLA, said the people of these villages.
The situation vis-à-vis education sector in this area can be gauged from the fact that Bundera High School has only four teachers for 225 students. Similarly, there are only two staff members as against the sanctioned strength of 22 in Nagbutna High School. The scenario vis-à-vis health sector is worst as there is no health centre in Kountwara and people have the only option of covering huge distance on foot and then reaching Kishtwar for getting medicare.
“Even the Kishtwar district administration is working as per the directions of the MLA and genuine problems of the people are not taken seriously”, people of Saroor said. The voices of discrimination are very loud in Saroor, parts of Sigdi, Bounjwah and Tagood areas of the constituency where people have no hope of present MLA taking any step to redress their grievances.
Though majority of people of Chatroo expressed satisfaction over the performance of the MLA, discontentment was also noticed among the people of some parts of Chatroo, who even went to the extent of saying that MLA was openly discriminating with them for the obvious reasons.
The road connectivity problem is also being faced by numerous other areas of Inderwal mainly because work on several PMGSY roads was left mid-day by the contractors for unknown reasons and unconcerned MLA is watching the situation as a mute spectator. There are numerous roads in the constituency which have little work left but have been abandoned for one or the other reason, said Abdul Naik of Kandni.
Puran Chand, Sarpanch of Drubeel said, “the fate of several roads like Gurna-Drubeel and Kuchhal on which work was started several years back is still hanging in balance and contractors are working as per their will and whims thereby depriving people of the benefit of several schemes of the Government of India in R&B sector”.
“From the ground situation it seems that these schemes were framed for the benefit of contractors having political patronage and not for the common masses”, he said, adding “even substandard material is being used in the construction of roads with the ulterior motives”.
The situation is alike vis-à-vis schemes in other sectors as people were found complaining about misuse of MGNREGA scheme. They even alleged that those having political patronage were openly making misuse of the scheme for their personal gains while as the genuine job-card holders were facing numerous difficulties.
Accusing MLA of watching the illegal activities as mute spectator, he said, “what is expected from a person who has even failed to ensure adequate staff in the educational and health institutions”. His views were substantiated by several people of Drubeel, who alleged administrative anarchy in their area.
“The focus was laid only on up-gradation of the health centres and opening/up-gradation of educational institutions but no step was ever initiated to provide adequate staff”, they said. The people of Kuchal, Simbole and Kwath said that they have been demanding adequate staff for the schools in these areas but their repeated requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Zulfikar Ali, a resident of Bounjwah too highlighted the poor condition of the roads in the area. “Our area has population of 11,000 and the only road providing connectivity to all the scattered villages is kacha and no step has so far been initiated to blacktop the same despite repeated requests to the MLA”, he rued.
“Pregnant women face the major brunt of kacha road as they reach the health centres by risking their as well as lives of the child in their womb”, he said, adding “since political workers are getting the contracts of road construction they are least bothered about the grievances of the people”.
He named a number of schools like Primary School Hewan, Primary School Dandal and school at Manosan, whose buildings are in dilapidated condition with crumbling kitchen sheds and bathrooms.
The people of several parts of Inderwal constituency also painted dismal picture of electrification and water supply. While some people of the un-electrified villages alleged that solar lights were being distributed on the political considerations, several others said that no step was initiated either by the MLA or the district administration to ensure quality works under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) as a result of which intended objective of the scheme could not be achieved.
The situation vis-à-vis water supply can be gauged from the harsh reality that there is no filtration plant in Inderwal constituency and people are being supplied raw water directly from the sources. Even the fate of numerous ongoing water supply schemes is hanging in balance due to lack of interest of the concerned authorities.
The people expressed serious concern over slow pace and non-functioning of several ongoing water supply schemes and said, “although we have heard about MLA reviewing the water supply schemes but there is no positive outcome of such an exercise”.
The complaints regarding political interference even in the supply of ration to certain areas of the constituency also came to the notice of EXCELSIOR. “What to talk of the district administration even the officers and officials of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department are ignoring the genuine requirement”, people alleged, adding “what to talk of during winters even during summer we are being forced to purchase ration from the open market due to inordinate delay in supply of CAPD ration”.
The people are also annoyed over non-serious approach of the MLA towards ensuring job opportunities to the local skilled manpower in the Ratle Hydroelectric Project, which is coming up at Drabshala. “Only few local contractors having political links have obtained the benefits and despite being approached about ensuring jobs to the locals in the project a number of times the MLA has not taken any positive step”, they alleged.
The non-serious approach of the MLA can be gauged from the fact that work on the project has come to a grinding halt during the past several months but he has not initiated any step to ensure re-start of the work keeping in view the importance of the project for the area.
When contacted, MLA Inderwal, G M Saroori initially said that he would spare some time to present his viewpoints on the issues confronting the people. Later, he continued to avoid interacting with EXCELSIOR despite repeated phone calls.
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