Excelsior Correspondent
KISHTWAR, Apr 24: The residents of Kishtwar district are facing manifold problems as the 110 kilometers Batote-Doda-Kishtwar highway connecting Jammu and other parts of the State again got closed due to fresh landslide triggered due to rains at Kuligad area near Drabshalla here today.
Apart from road connectivity, the heli services to and fro between Kishtwar and Jammu also remained affected, which added vows of the people including the patients, who are in dire need of medical treatment outside the Kishtwar district.
Vehicles carrying essential commodities including vegetables, fruits, ration, petrol and diesel got stranded on the highway due to fresh landslide at Kuligad near Drabshalla. Some of the people de-boarded their respective passenger vehicles and reached their destination by trekking through alternate mountainous routes.
As the shooting stones continued till late evening, the vehicular movement on the highway remained suspended.
The heli services from Kishtwar to Jammu continued to remain suspended for the past around one week, due to which the people including patients are facing problems. The residents flayed the administration over slow pace of work going on to restore the vehicular movement on the highway.
“After road connectivity, the heli services has also got affected, which is creating manifold problems for the people including ailing ones”, said a resident of District Kishtwar.
Administration is not taking concrete steps to restore the vehicular movement on the highway and air services to provide succor to the people, adding that their elected representatives are also not taking the road and air services issues with the concerned authorities on priority basis and left the people on the mercy of God.
When contacted, Mohinder Sen, Xen, R&B Division Kishtwar said that the highway got closed due to fresh landslide triggered due to rains during the intervening night of April 23 and 24.
He informed that the restoration work at this stretch of the highway will start after shooting stones stops.
It is to mention here that in the month of April, five persons were killed due to landslide at this accidental prone Kuligad area near Drabshalla.
Meanwhile, the aspirants seeking jobs through the J&K Services Selection Board have urged the Government to set up an exam centre in their parent district for the convenience of the local unemployed youth.
The local unemployed youth of District Kishtwar told the EXCELSIOR that their examination centres have been set up outside the district including Doda and Bhaderwah by JKSSB authorities.
They said that the condition of highway is not allowing them to travel from Kishtwar to Doda and urged the JKSSB authorities to establish separate examination centres in their parent district so that the aspirants hailing from remote areas of Kishtwar and Doda Districts could easily appear in the written examination to be conducted by JKSSB on April 27.
When contacted, Secretary SSB, Shahid Saleem Dar told the EXCELSIOR that all the material required to conduct the examination have been dispatched and it is not possible to re-establish the examination centres. Now it is upto the district administration Kishtwar to restore the vehicular movement on the highway and facilitate the aspirants to attend the examinations at the centres allotted to them.
When contacted, DC Kishtwar GN Balwan said that the heli services got affected due to some technical reasons. “The services will be restored in the shortest possible time”, he added.
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