People forced to take long, alternative routes
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Jan 28: For more than 20 years, the residents of Dargam in district Baramulla are demanding a road from Dargam to Gohiwa village of Pattan under PMGSY. However, the demand has so far fallen on deaf ears.
To reach Pattan during a medical emergency or routine work, the residents are compelled to go around and first reach Hyderbaigh and then Pattan which increases the distance by more than 16 kilometres.
“We have submitted repeated applications in the office of the divisional as well as the district administration, but we still walk in the mud in the absence of road and are being forced to use another road from Dargam via Hyderbaigh to reach hospital in Pattan,” M Ashraf Khan, a local said.
The residents said that the situation is not only difficult for the patients, but the students who have to reach Pattan or have to go to Srinagar are forced to take a longer route which just wastes a lot of their time.
“Some patients even died on the way to the hospital because they could not reach Pattan well in time; in the absence of a public health centre in Dargam, we are forced either to go to Nihalpora or Pattan in case of emergency,” another resident, Ghulam Hassan said.
The road, if constructed, can prove beneficial to more than 6 villages which include Resraypora, Check Dargam, Dargam Colony A, B and C with a population of about 20000 souls.
As per residents, in the year, 2019 the then Divisional Commissioner, Baseer Ahmad Khan had passed directions to the concerned department to take up the work of the road, but the residents said that their issue continues to linger.
Given the fact that the locals in the area are associated with the fruit industry, the locals said that if the road is constructed, the expenditure on their fruit produce will also come down.
“In 2020, you can see people of our village using horses for daily work in the fields and this is all happening due to the non-availability of road,” the residents said.
Vice president of a local Youth Committee, Altaf Ahmad Parray said that they have seen this dilapidated road right from their childhood and despite bringing the issue to the notice of the officials, nothing has changed.
The locals have also given in writing and have stated the problems that they are facing to the Chief Engineer PMGSY who has then forwarded the same to the Superintending Engineer, Baramulla.
Shahjahan Peer, the concerned official of the PMGSY, told Excelsior that he does not have any such road in his notice and that the PMSGY does not work based on demands rather the scheme is parameter oriented.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
