Mohinder Verma
When the Ramban district was carved out of the erstwhile Doda district on April 1, 2007 keeping in view the backwardness and remoteness of this vast hilly terrain, there was massive jubilation among the people in both the Assembly segments of the district-Ramban and Banihal. There was all justification behind the euphoria as creation of independent administrative unit after a long struggle was directly associated with redressal of developmental related grievances of the people.
The district assumes much importance because it shares its boundaries with Reasi, Udhampur, Doda, Anantnag and Kulgam districts and about 95-kilometer of National Highway 1A connecting Jammu and Srinagar runs through district Ramban.
The inhabitants of Banihal Assembly segment were more excited about the creation of district because of the constituency being the last destination of the Jammu region towards the Kashmir valley and having more difficult and rugged terrain as compared to the Ramban Assembly segment.
However, jubilation has faded with the passage of the time not because the development related grievances of the people have been redressed but due to the fact that majority of the grievances have remained un-addressed and people don’t feel any change on ground following the creation of new district.
Contrary to the general perception that a good public representative is always a boon to the society, the inhabitants of numerous areas of the Banihal Assembly constituency, whom this EXCELSIOR Correspondent interacted with during the random survey, are of the opinion that the sitting MLA from the area, Vikar Rasool Wani, who is also the Minister of State for Power, could not bring any perceptible change in major parts of the constituency during the past more than five and half years. They said that only some selected areas, which the Minister considers as his vote bank, have received his fullest attention in all sectors.
The common masses have long list of grievances. Be it education, health and road or drinking water and electricity sectors they have only grievances, which according to them have not received the due attention of their elected representative.
For any constituency like Banihal, which is mostly spread over hilly terrain, road connectivity assumes much importance because network of road is needed to reach schools and health institutions. Moreover, it improves economic condition of the people. But large number of habitations are still unconnected compelling the people to tread rugged terrain to reach their destinations.
Take the example of roads taken up in the constituency under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a flagship scheme of the Union Government. A total of 16 roads under this scheme were taken up in Banihal constituency about four-five years back but barring one or two all others remain incomplete despite the fact that these roads were required to be completed within stipulated time-frame strictly as per the guidelines of the scheme.
“The work on the PMGSY roads is being carried out at very slow pace and despite bringing this to the notice of the MLA no step has so far been taken to gear up the work”, a shopkeeper at Nachlana namely Zalal-ud-Din said while interacting with the visiting EXCELSIOR Correspondent. “The work on project to provide road connectivity to Mahu Mangat area, which was started in 2010, has yet not been completed and MLA is also responsible for the same because he could not get the work expedited”, he added.
Another shopkeeper, Mohd Salim said, “several years back we had projected the demand of providing road link to Manjos area but to of no avail”, adding “in the absence of road network, we are finding it difficult to timely shift the ailing persons to the health centres. The situation is that sometimes the critical patients die before being shifted to health centres in the absence of road connectivity”.
Ghulam Nabi, a resident of Khari, who was waiting for passenger vehicle to reach his destination, said, “Khari to Mahu and Banihal to Mangat roads, which were taken up several years back, have yet not been completed although slow pace of work was brought to the notice of MLA a number of times”.
Substantiating that there was no focus on providing road network to the unconnected habitations, Parvez Ahmad, a resident of Mahu, who was incidentally in Banihal town for some sort of personal work, said, “Mahu Mangat area has no road connectivity despite the fact that it lies at a distance of 12 kilometers from the road side in Banihal tehsil”.
Similarly, Neel area too lacks road connectivity despite the fact that a number of representations were made by the people to the MLA. According to the people, work on Kharkoot to Zabaan road and Nowgam to Danner Road, which was started with much fanfare by the MLA in the month of June last year, was going on at a snail’s pace and they were not expecting road connectivity in near future.
What to talk of construction of new roads even the condition of the existing roads is deplorable in the constituency with no attention from the concerned department or the MLA. “The roads get damaged due to snowfall every year but their maintenance doesn’t receive any focus”, a commuter Irfan Ahmad said at Banihal town.
Notwithstanding the official records, the power scenario in the constituency also paints a grim picture as large number of hamlets have yet not been electrified despite the fact that MLA of the area is holding the portfolio of Power Development Department.
“Parts of village Khari, Sumaharha, Shagan, Mangit, Mahu, Neel, Bhata, Kudawah and Sumber of Banihal and Ramsoo blocks have yet not been electrified thereby putting a question mark on the performance of MLA in this sector too”, said a social worker, while wishing anonymity on the ground of being victimized by the supporters of the MLA.
“The people of these areas are still living in stone age that too at a time when the Minister of State for Power is from this constituency”, he said, adding “the Minister only believes in upgrading transformers under some Centrally sponsored schemes and then taking credit of the same by cutting the ribbons”.
Expressing concern over shortage of teachers and doctors in the schools and health centres, Ghulam Nabi of Shagan said, “there are only two teachers in High School Shagan for 280 students”, adding “even there is acute shortage of teachers in Higher Secondary School Khari but MLA has not taken any step to overcome this deficiency despite being made aware about the situation”.
“There is also acute shortage of subject teachers in various schools of the constituency as a result of which students are unable to prepare themselves for the examinations”, Sonaullah of Sarbagni said while disclosing that recently the scores of students held a protest demonstration on the National Highway over shortage of staff in the schools.
Following the protest, the Chief Education Officer had assured to provide subject teachers in the schools but till date situation has not improved although after the protest a deputation had also called on the MLA, he further said.
A retired Master, Om Parkash of Ramsoo, while drawing the attention towards the High School of the area said, “this school was opened 42 years back but till date it has not been upgraded despite repeated representations to the MLA”, adding “for higher education the students have the options of visiting Khari or Ukhral. To visit Khari, they are required to change two vehicles despite the tall claims of the MLA that education facilities have been provided to the people at their door steps”.
About the health sector, people said, “the situation can be gauged from the condition of Sub-District Hospital Banihal and Primary Health Centre Ramsoo”, adding “what to talk of opening dispensaries in deserving areas even no focus was paid on providing adequate staff in the existing institutions”.
“All the health institutions have become referral centres in the absence of adequate manpower and equipment”, Javed Iqbal of Ramsoo said, adding “if the MLA cannot play role in providing basic facilities to the people what else is expected from him”.
About the interaction of the MLA with the common masses, there was a general view point that their representative has confined his interactions with the selected Sarpanchs and Panchs and his visits remained confined to some selected areas instead of being broad-based. In many parts of the constituency, people were found unaware of the schemes of Sericulture, Horticulture and Animal Husbandry Departments as no efforts were made by their MLA to generate awareness about the activities of these departments.
Resentment was also noticed among the people about failure of their elected representative to get skilled labourers of the constituency engaged by the companies executing major projects in road, tunnel and railway sectors. “Whenever we approached the MLA with the request to ensure employment to the local youth in these projects, he only gave assurance and during the last five and half years he has not played any positive role in this regard”, a technically trained youth Sadiq Ali said at Banihal town.
The detailed survey by the EXCELSIOR revealed that in all the five priority sectors-roads, health, education, power and water the people have only the long list of grievances to project than the performance of the MLA.
When contacted after repeated attempts, MLA Banihal, Vikar Rasool Wani confessed the inordinate delay in completion of PMGSY roads. “Mandatory formalities like forest clearance take time and now the work is going on at the required pace”, he claimed, adding “even tough terrain is responsible for delay or slow pace of work on such roads”.
About the grievances of people with regard to shortage of staff in schools and health centres, Mr Wani, who is also Minister of State for Power and Technical Education, said, “this problem is everywhere in the State and not confined to my constituency only. Anyhow, I tried my level best to provide staff”, adding “recently Lecturers were provided in the Khari Higher Secondary School”.
Mr Wani refused to answer other queries relating to public opinion about his performance and said, “I am surrounded by several people at present and will try to spare time to speak on the subject”.
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