Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference senior leader and Member of Parliament from Baramulla Muhammad Akbar Lone on Saturday said that there is no semblance of governance in North Kashmir Districts saying the administration is failing even in its basic duties and has become synonymous with negligence.
This Lone said while interacting with scores of delegations from North Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora, and Kupwara districts here at his official residence in Srinagar. The visiting delegation members comprising of young and old, students and job aspirants, women and tribals apprised the Member of Parliament about the widespread administrative apathy in the entire north Kashmir districts, saying that the entire populace, particularly in the higher reaches and far-flung areas have been relinquished to their own fate.
Lack of medical facilities, shortage of staff, poor sanitation, absence of proper heating arrangement, the visiting delegation said, has added to the adversaries of the people across the three north Kashmir districts. “Existing infrastructural setup for providing health care in rural areas of north Kashmir is poor and hasn’t been augmented and upgraded since 2015. The qualitative and quantitative availability of primary health care facilities at Tehsil, Block and Village level is far less than the defined norms and requirements,” the delegation members told the MP.
The visiting delegations also raised the issue of lousy roads in the north Kashmir districts saying that the road infrastructure continues to remain one of the main problems of the commuters across the north Kashmir areas. “Interdistrict and intradistrict roads in north Kashmir districts have become death traps for commuters for want of repairs. Safe, paved roads that can be used in all-weather conditions continue to be a dream of north Kashmir residents. Patients, expecting mothers, students and businessmen often suffer due to the crumbling road infrastructure in these areas,” the delegations said.
The lower middle classes and other marginalized sections are additionally burdened by the crunch of escalating price rise of all the basic commodities and that the mounting power and drinking water tariffs have further burdened them, the delegations maintained.“The contracting JK economy already has had an adverse effect on the household incomes, the supercilious escalation of terrific on basic public utilities and soaring inflation has pushed the people especially to wall. Let alone spending on clothing, medicine and education, people are not able to get two square meals for their families. It was expected that the crumbling economic activities in JK post 5, august 2019 will have a restraining effect on government’s taxation policy but the unabated rise in the electricity and water tariff has given slip to the unconcerned attitude of the government,” they said.
The delegations further stated that unemployment, crumbling agriculture and allied agriculture activities are matters of grave concern for the people in north Kashmir areas. “The agonizing voices of unemployed youth are amplifying with each passing day, but the administration seems to have turned volte-face to their predicament. Let alone creation of more job avenues, the incumbent government has stalled the future of scores of our unemployed youth who despite getting clearance from respective departments are still awaiting their compassionate appointment under the SRO-43, SRO-120. On the other hand the rampant exploitation of need-based, contractual, WYC, ASHA, and ITI skilled youth continues to persist. Even to have their basic demands met, they have to come on roads. Their genuine concerns have since long been met with apathy. Nearly 60,000 continues to face discrimination in the shape of pay anomalies. What has added to the worries of the youth is the offhanded termination policy of the government. Let alone providing government jobs to our youth, the policies of the JK administration and GOI have stunted the growth in local agriculture and horticulture sectors,” they added.
Lone assured the delegation that he will raise the issues concerning them at all appropriate forums. Echoing the sentiments of the visiting delegations, he said the airdropped officials in Kashmir, particularly north Kashmir, have failed to deliver and address the issues of the local populace.
