Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Thursday expressed concern over the scarcity of edibles and other life-saving drugs in the remote hamlets of District Kupwara, Bandipur, saying people living in far-flung areas of Gurez, Keran continue to suffer for want of all-weather surface connectivity.
While expressing concern over the shortage of edibles, LPG and other life-saving drugs in the Gurez and Keran areas of North Kashmir, Senior Leader and Member of Parliament from Baramulla Muhammad Akbar Lone said, “It was said that the traffic to these areas will be restored after improvement in the weather conditions and getting a green signal from the officials deployed on the ground, but since the traffic hasn’t been restored and the people living in the people continue to remain disconnected from the local district headquarters to this day. Halting of traffic to their areas has created scarcity of essential items in these upper reaches and adjoining valleys. We have been repeatedly impressing upon the administration to review the stock of supplies in Gurez and Keran and other upper reaches on a fortnightly basis but our repeated pleas were given a cold shoulder by the local administration.”
Lone said the problems faced by the people living in Gurez, Tangdhar, Tulal, Machil, Keran, and Dawar get compounded due to the absence of all-weather surface connectivity with the rest of the country. He said he has time and again raised the issues at all appropriate forums including the Lok Sabha and with the concerned ministry.
He said the inordinate delay on the construction of the Gurez-Bandipora Tunnel project was unwarranted because the feasibility report and DPR on the project was approved in June 2015 by BRO and is since pending for approval from the central government. The administration, he rued was busy in window dressing only but when it comes to deliverance on the ground it takes a back seat. So far the administration hasn’t taken a stock of edibles, LPG and other life-saving drugs. The new helipads constructed at Dawar, Kanzalwan, Neeru, Baduaab have only seen trial landing and nothing else.
