Ashutosh Khanna
Poonch region of Jammu and Kashmir state is located in the southwestern foothills of pir panchal range. The terrain of this region varies from sub – tropic to temperate zone. Due to its natural beauty Poonch is also known as ‘ Mini Kashmir’, land of sufis and saints, erstwhile’ Palaces of Raja Moti Singh, Baldev Singh, Jagatdev Singh, Maharani Outalya’, area of warrior tribes and people of good reputation.
The district is comprised of snowcapped mountaneous ranges, thick belts of forests, sloppy lands, attractive mounds, gushing streams, springs, crystal clear lakes, Dhoks, margs, valley’s, georges, glens, high pasture lands, meadows, water falls, glaciers, torrential nallahs, and rivers. Poonch was a principality before 1947, having four tehsils namely Haveli, Mendhar, Bhag and Sudhnutti. The total area of the principality was 1627 sq miles. The population of Poonch principality in 1947 A.D was 4.79 lacs out of which 0.69 lacs were hindus and sikhs while 4.10 lacs were Muslims. The revenue of the principality was 9.70 lacs. According to census of 2011 population has increased from 4,76,820.
Recently carved out about 25 kms away from district headquarters Poonch is a tehsil namely Mandi. It is surrounded by Tangmarg tehsil towards north, khag tehsil towards east, Kunzer and Kralpora tehsil towards north. Famous for Buddha Amarnath. Buddha Amarnath is an ancient and unique shiva temple having a white naturally formed Shiv Lingam out of chakmak. This sacred place is very picturesque; it is situated on the confluence of two gushing streams namely nallah Gagri and Pulasta nadi. The stream which flows near it is the Loran stream but it is believed by the locals that Ravans Grandfather Pulasta Rishi performed his penance here and thus is known as Pulasta stream. This place is also famous for ziarat Illahi Baksh (Battalkot Loran)
Five kms away from sub district headquarter Mandi ia situated village Arai. It is one of the 27 villages in Mandi block. Arai has total population of 15000. There are about 1423 houses in Arai village. The people of this village are suffering from mysterious kind of disease which is prevailing in the form of disability for so many years. They have fallen ill with an obscure kind of disease which is still unknown. A large number of population of this village have so far been disabled by this mysterious disease. The disease is not known for making people disabled on the scale which experts say is unprecedented and right now, no one knows how so many are getting affected. The fact that we are seeing more than 1/3 of the total population that is very large outbreak are unable to move from their places. Due to harsh climatic conditions and no source of earning has taken poverty to a large extent. According to Mohd Farid Malik a social activist who himself is the sufferer of the said disease says, roots of this disease is still unknown as it attacks when a child is attaining age between 5- 8 years, the joints of legs and arms start getting jammed, bones gets locked which results in severe pain and body shrink. So many teams visited this village and gave a ray of hope to the affected people but they never returned back. As their visit made the condition of the people more worst different teams took their blood samples seperately as a result of this people became anaemic due to lack of nutritious diet. Another child namely Daud ahmed a student of class 12 th who is going to school on sitting the sholuders of his neighbour narrated as we are disabled the administration is paying no attention to us. We are continuously neglected by the Department of Health and Social Welfare as there is no Primary Health Centre in this area and we are not well enough to reach our district hospital. We have so far not been provided the crutches (baisakhi) as well as monthly scholarship of Rs 400 by the SWD deptt. If we have to withdraw our wazifa of 400 we have to pay Rs 300 to the concerned clerk. Naib Sarpanch Mohd Aslam narrated after seeing the disability of the people Supreme Court passed the ruling result of which a legal aid clinic was established by then distt and Session Judge Jaffer Beig but after his transfer that was also closed. As we are already suffering from brutal disease alongwith this we are deprived of electricity, water supply, road connectivity. The people of this village goes to Jammu Poonch Rajouri for beggining so that they can purchase medicines for this disease. According to Abdul Baki whose 5 kids are disabled told us under Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) and Swach Bharat Abhiyaan administration was liable to provide us toilets for natures call and house to live in but nothing has so far been provided to us. Block Development Officer of this area recently said you will get your toilets constructed within 15 days but nothing has been done so far. On the one hand we are disabled and the on other we are not having the basic facilities so it bewilders us whether we should live or commit suicide.
Recently Prof. Nirmal Gupta, Chairperson & Minister of State, J&K State Social Welfare Board visited Arai village of Mandi Tehsil, District Poonch and interacted with the locals. During the interaction with the locals, she met 84 disabled persons, mostly children in Village Arai, who were born normal abut after they reached the age of 5 years they developed physical disabilities. The Chairperson directed the District authorities to immediately set up medical camps, in the village to find out the root cause of the problem, so that remedial measures can be taken to prevent any further disabilities, especially amongst the children. Prof. Gupta directed BDO Mandi to construct Medical Aid Centre at Arai and construct household latrines for all the 84 disabled families. She directed Tehsil Social Welfare Officer to conduct special camps in the village, for issuance of Disability Certificates to all the persons with disabilities and ensure their coverage under disability pension. She also asked Tehsildar Mandi to personally monitor the implementation of the instructions given.
At the end no one found any specific result for this mysterious disease whether a medical team or Govt officials and it is the bad luck of the poor people that they have to live like this till they die…
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