‘Poll promises never fulfilled, ray of hope as DDC elections are maiden’
Sanjeev K Sharma
SUCHETGARH/R S PURA, Dec 16: Incredible it may sound but is a reality that two hamlets at Indo-Pak International Border (IB) have tales of broken election promises and poor dissemination of awareness by the concerned authorities about vital schemes and programmes for rural areas apart from the common dilemma of developmental crisis.
While Suchetgarh people have asserted that the much talked border tourism project on the pattern of Wagah (in Amritsar) always remained an election time cry of the politicians which ultimately becomes broken election promise, another hamlet Abdullian, at the International Border in R S Pura added much to surprise as no cattle there is insured though the village produces record amount of milk and is popular throughout Jammu for its milk-cakes.
Apart from this, these border villages face certain problems due to bad roads, poor drainage system, poor irrigation facilities, insufficient number of safety bunkers to cater to the need of entire population during senseless firing and shelling from other side of the border etc.
After casting his vote at a polling station established in Government Middle School Suchetgarh, Sudesh Kumari, 40, a housewife said she never saw anything on ground which may show the sign of border tourism but the term is mostly heard during election times.
She also talked about problems of bad road, lack of transport facilities and poor drainage system in her village.
Similar views were expressed by 21 years old Preet Kour, also from Suchetgath and doing graduation at Government Degree College in R S Pura as she came out of the same polling station after casting her vote there to the candidate of her choice in the seventh phase of the ongoing maiden District Development Council (DDC) elections.
However, S Sohan Singh, 40, a farmer talked about water problem in Suchetgarh.
“Though there are hand-pumps in the village yet the level of water goes down in April-May and the supply from Public Health Engineering also not remains regular in the village,” he claimed adding that water in canals is not released well in time and with proper pressure so that it may reach the tail end and the farming community may irrigate their fields.
Devinder Kumar, 45, another farmer at yet another polling station in Government High School Basti Gulab Garh claimed that number of bunkers in his village is not sufficient and more bunkers are needed there to ensure safety to the life of more people during the time of cross border shelling and firing.
When asked about the much talked border tourism project, he said, the limited number of tourists visiting Suchetgarh border to see the Octroi post and the historic temple there has reduced to nil due the firing from Pakistan side and present Corona pandemic.
Yet another voter Narinder Singh, 47, also a farmer from Basti Gulab Garh village after casting his vote at the same polling station said border tourism is nowhere in the area and claimed it as a befooling trick of the politicians to secure votes of innocent people from the border villages of Suchetgarh.
Singh also talked about the problem due to poor irrigation facilities in the area and said that water in canal is not released when it is required.
He claimed that political influence remains behind the release of water in canal for irrigation purpose and poor supply of electricity makes it hard to irrigate the fields using ground water with the help of an electric motor and this problem further gets worse when the power transformer gets burnt and installation of a new one takes many days.
Political importance of Suchetgarh can be judged from the fact that the two big parties BJP and Congress have given their mandate for this seat to bigwigs.
While BJP’s Chowdhary Sham Lal, who remained a Minister in the erstwhile J&K State, is contesting from Suchetgarh seat, Congress has fielded former Member of Parliament, S Trilok Singh Bajwa from here.
As start of the day was chilly due to the dense fog this morning, it had its affect on the polling due to which it started in a dull note but later became normal.
Bharat Bhushan-Presiding Officer at polling station in Government Primary School Abdullian said the polling started right at 7:00 am with few voters visiting the polling station but later, on arrival of the voters became normal.
He further informed that men, women, elders and few first timers casted their votes enthusiastically.
Raj Kumar, 45, running a dairy farm in Abdullian said though the village has record number of cattle and produce milk in record quantity yet none of the villagers has insured his cattle.
“Though animal husbandry people visit our village and examine our cattle yet none has ever made us aware about the procedure of cattle insurance and its benefits even though many cattle in the village fall prey to bullets of belligerent bullets coming from the other side of the dividing line,” he said.
After casting his vote, Gurdas Ram, 80, a farmer from Abdullian said senseless firing from Pakistan side badly affects their agriculture and kills innocent villagers and cattle in his village.
Another villager Bachan Lal said the road linking R S Pura-Abdullian should be broadened so that there may remain no problem in movement of troops and the villagers may also move with an ease while migrating to safer places during shelling and firing from other side of the border.
It is pertinent to mention here that the milk cakes of Abdullian are sold by big outlets under their own brand names in Jammu.
However, these border villages mostly come in limelight at the time of cross border firing.
Most of the residents of these villages expressed that as they have rarely seen election promises coming true so they have stopped believing that any of the election promise made with them will ever materialize.
“Yet this time we have a ray of hope as the DDC elections are maiden here,” they maintained.
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