Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Aug 30: Alleging total neglect of Dudu- Basantgarh Sub Divisions besides Latti Tehsil in district Udhampur, Latti Development Committee (LDC) has strongly demanded setting up of a new Govt Degree College at Latti Tehsil headquarters.
Chairman of the Committee, Kasturi Lal Gupta (Sarpanch-Latti) and other members told the Excelsior that they were struggling for the Degree College at Latti for the last more than a decade. They said the LDC had met the then Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, the then Education Ministers Altaf Bukhari and even Naeem Akhtar besides some other top bureaucrats who had assured them that this remote area of district Udhampur will definitely get Degree College, but nothing happened.
They pointed out that during past seven years, two times colleges were sanctioned for various areas in the state, but Latti was totally ignored by the people at the helm of affairs. Even the public representatives also failed to help the people of this area for getting a college sanctioned at Latti.
The LDC chairman pointed out that they had offered more than 100 kanals of free land for the Govt College at Latti and revenue papers of 117 kanals Govt land were also submitted to the concerned higher authorities long back but the proposal was not cleared. The students from Dudu area go to Udhampur College after covering distance of more than 108 kms and those from Latti area over 72 kms besides almost 85 kms distance from Jakhed and Panchount area. Many families do not send their young daughters to study in the college at Udhampur being far away.
He said Latti-Dudu-Basantgarh is the remotest area in district Udhampur and moreover, there are five feeding Higher Secondary Schools in the area. High School at Latti was upgraded as Higher Secondary in 1986 and this centrally located big town in the belt, really deserve a college. Various LDC members including Shiv Ram, Mohd Rafiq, Khalid Hussain, Nissar Ahmed, Govind Ram and others appealed to the State Governor and the concerned Advisor to sanction a Degree College for Latti without any delay.