There is something deeply troubling about a High Court having to repeatedly knock on the Government’s door to remind it of its most fundamental duty – protecting citizens from preventable harm. The PIL concerning the villages of Barjala and Khandwal, filed way back in 2018, is now into its eighth year before the courts. That a Division Bench of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh must still be urging authorities to expedite the preparation of a Detailed Project Report, with monsoon clouds already gathering on the horizon, speaks volumes about the state’s paralysing indifference to the lives it is sworn to protect. The Tawi River is no stranger to fury. Year after year, its swollen waters have swallowed farmland, threatened homesteads, and pushed riverside communities to the brink of despair. The damage is documented; the danger is acknowledged; even the Chief Engineer of the Jal Shakti Department has conceded the imminent threat. And yet, the remedy remains stubbornly imprisoned in official files, awaiting appraisal, scrutiny, presentations, and counter-presentations. The proposed flood mitigation project – a Detailed Project Report now placed before the Central Water Commission – carries an estimated cost of a modest Rs 15 crore. Even if approved today, the process alone is expected to consume nine months, provided the J&K Government responds promptly to every query raised. After that comes implementation. In the meantime, the monsoon waits for no bureaucratic convenience.
This part of governance is unacceptable under the present circumstances; it is negligence dressed up as paperwork. A Government that is under a constitutional and moral oath to safeguard its people cannot indefinitely shelter behind the slow machinery of multi-tier approvals whilst communities live season to season in dread of the next deluge. Intermediate measures – reinforcing embankments, dredging the riverbed, deploying temporary flood barriers, and strengthening early warning systems – demand neither parliamentary legislation nor nine-month appraisals. They demand only political will.
The HC’s intervention must not be treated merely as a judicial inconvenience to be managed with fresh affidavits and fortnightly adjournments. It is a moral indictment. The villagers of Barjala and Khandwal are not asking for the impossible; they are asking to be safe in their own homes. That is a right no citizen should have to litigate. This cycle of uncertainty must end. Lives are infinitely too precious to be sacrificed, year after year, upon the known altar of floods and forgotten files.
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