Mohinder Verma
Kishtwar, which is situated at a distance of 235 kilometers from the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, was merged with the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1821 AD. With the passage of time, Kishtwar became a tehsil of district Udhampur and remained its part till 1948 when it became part of newly created district Doda in the wake of first re-organization of the State during the post-independence period.
District Kishtwar was carved out in the year 2007 and it started functioning as independent administrative unit from April 1, 2007. It has two Assembly constituencies—Kishtwar and Inderwal. Kishtwar is surrounded by the districts of Anantnag and Doda and also touches the boundaries of Himachal Pradesh.
The Kishtwar constituency is being represented in the Legislative Assembly by one family and one party since 1977 barring one brief term in 1983. Prior to Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo, who is second time MLA from this constituency, this seat in Assembly was represented by his father Bashir Ahmed Kichloo. No doubt, Kichloos tried their level best to contribute for the development of this constituency but vast population of this constituency is holding them responsible for the backwardness and under-development of the area on the ground that they could not focus on the areas which otherwise required priority attention for the holistic development of the constituency.
Large number of people to whom EXCELSIOR interacted during the random survey recently said that poor road connectivity, which is the major stumbling block in ensuring holistic development of the constituency, never received the required attention. Large area of Dachhan, Wardwan, Marwah, Padder and Nagseeni blocks is still lacking the road network while as many parts of these blocks have only fair weather roads.
Dachhan block is having road connectivity up to Dangdooru while as Marwah tehsil headquarters doesn’t have proper road link and the block as a whole has connectivity up to Wardwan that too via Simthantop, which otherwise remains snowbound during winters. Similarly, Nagseeni block’s major area is having no road connectivity.
The roads are lifelines and play important role in the socio-economic development of any area and its people. What sort of other basic amenities are available in these areas in the absence of proper connectivity can be easily gauged. During the survey, people were largely found dissatisfied with the performance of MLA in this vital sector.
“At a time when other parts of the State are marching on the path of development, we are still crying for road connectivity”, Ishfaq Hussain of Dachhan said. “Though during summer we somehow manage the course of life by covering distance on foot but in winters life here is like being in hell as huge snowfall prevents us from covering distance even on foot”, he rued.
Similar assertions were made by the large number of people of Marwah and Padder areas. “During the past several years, National Conference ruled the State and the same party is representing the constituency in the Assembly but no perceptible change could be witnessed in road sector despite the fact that MLA of a ruling party can do wonders for people of his constituency by exerting intense pressure to resolve people’s grievances”, Shabir Ahmed of Marwah said.
Drinking water, which is the foremost necessity for the survival of any human being, is also a scarce amenity in the constituency. There is only one filtration plant in Kishtwar town but the same remains non-functional most of the times and unfiltered water is being provided to the people by putting them at the risk of getting affected by water borne diseases particularly during rainy season. Moreover, in most of the areas water is being supplied on alternate days that too for short duration in a day.
“Like other facilities, drinking water is also supplied to the people with the political considerations”, residents of Bera and Sarkoot said, adding “there is no focus on repairing the existing supply lines rather preference is being given to laying of new lines as the same benefits the contractors having political links”. Similar was the complaint of Trigam, Matta and Kuleed areas, who said, “we brought this issue to the notice of our MLA a number of times but the situation has not improved and it seems he is least bothered about grievances”.
When asked about Naigad water supply scheme, Ajit Kumar a resident of the town said, “we have been listening about this scheme during the past several years but when it will be executed and people get safe drinking water remains a million dollar question”, adding “though a lift scheme has been commissioned by PHE from Hasti but that too has failed to meet the crisis in the town and adjoining areas”.
The grim scenario vis-à-vis safe and adequate drinking water supply can be gauged from the fact that in rest of the areas of the Kishtwar constituency in particular and district as a whole raw water is being supplied to the people directly from the sources.
“What to talk of roads and drinking water sectors, there is political interference everywhere due to which work culture remains a casualty and victims of the prevailing scenario are the common masses”, some residents of the town said wishing their names not to be disclosed.
Similar is the situation of power sector. There are large number of un-electrified villages in almost all the blocks of the Kishtwar constituency and MLA despite being a Minister in the Coalition Government has failed to get these villages electrified. “When Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo became the MLA for the first time in 2002 he had promised to ensure electrification of all the left over villages but the situation remained the same till date”, Shaqir Sidiqui of Kishtwar said, adding “the only achievement of the MLA in this sector is that he managed to provide solar lights to some far off areas”.
“Dul Hasti project has failed to provide any sort of relief from the power crisis”, he said, adding “electricity generation potential of the Kishtwar is being tapped by way of constructing many power projects but we don’t expect any benefit keeping in view the Dul Hasti project experience”.
When the Government started making efforts to tap the electricity generation potential of Kishtwar by way of planning many hydro electric projects there was jubilation among the unemployed youth as they were assured of jobs in these projects but this promise has also fallen flat. “Only those persons who are having political links are getting employment in the projects at the cost of deserving and needy people”, Shaqir said, adding “people are making repeated representations to the MLA in this regard but he could not ensure justice”.
During the interaction with the people, it came to the fore that the people whose land was acquired or is being acquired for the power projects are not given the employment as a result of which there is resentment among them. “It is astonishing that Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Ltd, which is going to construct several projects in Kishtwar, has its offices in Jammu and Srinagar and is busy in engaging persons from different parts of State in sheer discrimination with the youth of Kishtwar”, people rued.
“It is a matter of serious concern that local youth are not given preference in employment to overcome the unemployment problem in this hilly district where the people are mostly dependent on labour as other sources of earning livelihood are meager”, a trader Rajesh Gupta said.
The health care facilities in the Kishtwar constituency are also not at the required level forcing the people to cover long distance on foot to reach District Hospital, which has better facilities as compared to other health institutions.
In the absence of proper road connectivity and lack of basic amenities doctors rarely stay in the areas like Dachhan, Marwah, Wardwan, Padder etc. The prevailing situation vis-à-vis health facilities can be gauged from the fact that ailing people are airlifted from the remote and far-off areas to Kishtwar town on the request of district administration for getting treatment in the district hospital.
“There is no ENT specialist in the District Hospital and people suffering from ENT problems are compelled to travel to Jammu to get the treatment”, Ajay Kumar, a resident of Kishtwar said.
Kishtwar has immense potential for the pilgrimage tourism and to tap this potential Kishtwar Development Authority had raised several structures in various areas for the convenience of the tourists but these structures have only benefitted the contractors. This is because of the fact that KDA did not pay any serious attention towards arranging manpower to man these structures. The height is that KDA has even failed to develop Chowgan, which is otherwise the face of Kishtwar town.
When contacted, MLA Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo, who is also Minister of State for Home and several other departments, said that he left no stone unturned to ensure development of the constituency. He, however, admitted there are difficulties at different levels and held difficult terrain responsible for the same.
Admitting that Kishtwar is facing drinking water problem, he said, “the situation in the past was more worrisome but due to our efforts improvement is visible on ground now”, adding “there was delay in execution of Naigad water supply scheme due to the contractor’s slackness but we have now got the work geared up and on the completion of this scheme the drinking water crisis would be over”.
He informed that all the necessary clearances have been obtained for the Nehr-e-Naigad Irrigation Khul and Drinking Water Project and an amount of Rs 45 crore has already been sanctioned for the same. “We will ensure time bound completion of this project”, he claimed.
About the road sector, he said, “no doubt there is connectivity issue in several blocks of the constituency but that doesn’t mean that we have totally ignored this vital sector”. Mr Kichloo said that at present up-gradation of Kishtwar-Gulabgarh road is going on. Similarly, work on Gulabgarh-Machail road was also going on but due to some dispute among the villagers the work got struck up at different levels. He further said that Inshan-Marwah road has already been completed and work on a bridge was going on at the fast pace, adding this road would be inaugurated by Chief Minister by August ending.
Stating that road connectivity was imperative for overall development of any area, the MLA said that this sector always remained the priority area of his party as well as Government and number of road projects taken up and completed during his tenure was the testimony of the same.
Admitting that many areas of his constituency were yet to be electrified, he said, “in order to help inhabitants of such areas I got huge number of solar lights distributed and the process is still on for the left out areas”, adding “we will ensure that people would get free power from the upcoming hydro electric projects and electricity crisis in the constituency as a whole in general and far-off areas in particular is minimized”.
As far as employment in the power projects is concerned, Mr Kichloo said, “I will leave no stone unturned to ensure that locals get adequate employment opportunities in the upcoming power projects as they have the right to be considered first for the jobs in the projects”.
About the non-utilization of infrastructure created by the Kishtwar Development Authority for the promotion of tourism, he said that a decision would shortly be taken to overcome the manpower crisis. “We will either engage persons or outsource the infrastructure so that the same is allowed to be used by the tourists”, he added.
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