MAND (Udhampur), Dec 2:
Issues of development and employment for educated youth may have been among factors for the huge voter turn out today in Mand village, situated on the newly constructed four-lane Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
Long queues of people could be seen outside several polling stations as people waited for their turn to caste their vote in the second phase of the ongoing assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
In Mand village men and women stood in different queues outside the polling station situated at the government high school, as they waited for their turn to exercise their franchise.
“As you see our village is situated on the national highway, but the only link road to our village is in shambles. The link road to our village which originates from the national highway is in dilapidated condition which has become a major problem for the residents here,” said Shamsher Singh a voter.
He says that the previous governments have not done much for the area as all their genuine demands have been neglected.
The residents here allege that the village does not have a proper health care facility and they have to shift their patients to Udhampur for treatment.
“We don’t have proper health care facility here, we have to take our patients to the district hospital in Udhampur and the transportation wastes lots of time. There are many areas which don’t have road connectivity hence it becomes more difficult for the patient”, said Manoj Kumar another resident of the area.
He said that in the past many patients have lost their lives when they were being transported to hospital in Udhampur.
The scene in the main Udhampur town is not different, as people in large number have gathered outside various polling stations in the town to caste their vote.
“Earlier education used to be the criteria for jobs, but
now there are no jobs for the educated youth also. There are a large number of educated youth in our district who don’t have a job,” said Sunil Kumar a first time voter who came to caste his vote at the Model Polling station in Udhampur.
The Udhampur assembly constituency is represented by Balwant Singh Mankotia of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party who won the seat in two consecutive elections of 2002 and 2008.
However Mankotia this times faces a tough competition from BJP’s Pawan Khajuria after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an impressive public rally in the town on November 28 and appealed the voters here to vote for Khajuria.
The residents in Udhampur feel that the district faced sever neglect during the tenure of the two successive coalition governments and this time they must elect a representative who can be a part of the ruling party.
“During the tenure of Mufti Sayeed when Harsh Dev Singh was the minister, our area got various developmental projects, but after that the area remained continuously neglected,” said Taj Ahmed a voter here.
Taj feels that for the betterment of the area the people here have decided to elect a representative whose party is hopeful to form the next government in the state.
“We have seen in the past too that it is very important to have a representative who could become your voice in the government, the people want to vote for a candidate who could not only represent them in the assembly but have a say in the state government,” Taj said.
A total of 2,99,796 eligible voters including 1,25,809 male and 1,37,621 female would seal the fate of the candidates in the three assembly constituencies of the district in 455 polling stations today.
The three assembly segments that went to polls in the district include, Udhampur with 1,05,736 eligible voters, Chenani and Ram Nanagr with 86,847 and 1,07,213 voters respectively. (AGENCIES)
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