Governor N.N. Vohra attended the Governors’ annual meeting recently in New Delhi presided over by the President.
In his address, the Governor has taken up the case of border development in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Our State touches on the border of two neighbouring countries to the north, China and Pakistan. Unfortunately, our relations with both of them have not been that cordial. Not only that we had to fight one war with China and three wars with Pakistan besides the raging proxy war unleashed by the latter. Last summer we saw a new phase in Pakistan’s inimical attitude as she not only continued to violate the cease fire agreement of 2003 repeatedly despite warnings but also targeted civilian population across the International Border. The case of Arnia sector in R.S Pura in Jammu is there to cite. Uninterrupted and unprovoked firing on civilian population living close to the LoC or the IB has caused displacement to thousands of people besides loss of life either through fatalities or through serious injuries. Naturally, this has caused great concern to State Government as well as to the Centre. Governor has justifiably sought relief for them
Let us be candid in saying that we have failed to develop the large border area lying from Shahidullah Pass down to Kathua in respect of road connectivity. Knowing full well that security of the border area was conditional to good and round the year connectivity, we failed to come up to the expectations of the people. We have no doubt constructed many roads during the past several decades but the way we should have road network in the border area in our State has not been there. Border Road Construction Organization has done much valuable work in regard to connectivity in the State but as the Governor rightly pointed out, it is not able to deliver the goods in a way we need. The Governor has very rightly sought fairly reasonable allocations for building roads and other facilities in border areas. He has called it poor road network and has also laid stress on repair and maintenance of border roads which for most part are in very unsatisfactory condition. Building a road is not the end of the task. We know that J&K is a hilly area and Kashmir and Ladakh regions are snow bound for many months in winter which causes damage to the roads owing to wet weather, landslides and mud slides. Therefore, when we talk about road connectivity, we should not lose sight of repairs and maintenance of the constructed roads.
Absence of road connectivity and existence of bad roads has adverse impact on the economy of the State. Transportation of material especially construction material is expensive. It also leads to higher price of commodities of daily use. It hampers mobility of the people, not to speak of adverse impact on health services. Raising the issue of delay in tunneling of strategic Zoji La that connects Ladakh and Kargil region to Srinagar and the rest of the country, the Governor was right in highlighting strategic importance of the tunnel. This becomes significant in the background of China bringing roads and airstrips very close to our borer in Chashul and entire border. Talking of Zoji La, one is reminded of the historic day when a great Indian soldier and commander, late General Thimayya, took the tanks and armoured cars up the forbidding Zoji La in late autumn 1948, and then took the enemy by surprise and pushed him away from Drass. We should have built that tunnel decades ago in memory of that great son of the soil and the most intrepid of all commanders of his day. The tunnel in making in Zoji La should be named after General Thimayya by way of paying tribute to him.
Interestingly the Governor suggested urgent upgrading of Dhar-Udhampur road, construction of a road via Bilaspur-Rohtang Pass to connect Ladakh and a new road Korzok-Taklingla to enable all-weather movements to the Valley and Ladakh. We hope that the Border Road Authority of India will seize the opportunity and prepare a blue print for these new links.
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