Seventy-eight years after India’s independence, it is both shocking and shameful that Kuntwara, a militancy-infested area in Kishtwar district, continues to remain without a basic road link. This glaring absence of connectivity, despite the allocation of funds and contracts under the PMGSY, exposes not just bureaucratic lethargy but a deeper nexus between negligent contractors and complicit officials. For decades, the people of Kuntwara have suffered in silence-cut off from essential services, isolated from opportunities, and left vulnerable to militancy. The lack of road access has not only perpetuated economic backwardness but also crippled security operations. Troops stationed in this sensitive belt face immense difficulties in responding swiftly to terrorist threats, jeopardising both local and national security. This is not merely an issue of development-it is a matter of strategic and humanitarian urgency.
The administration’s recent move to order FIRs against the defaulting contractors marks a long-overdue step toward accountability. However, this must not end as yet another bureaucratic formality. Reports suggest that both contractors-M/s Sharma Construction and M/s Kasana Brothers-managed to evade action for years, manipulating district-level authorities and even securing revocation of contract termination orders from the Civil Secretariat. Such revelations point toward a troubling collusion between political power and administrative indifference. That one of the defaulting firms is allegedly controlled by a sitting MLA’s family makes the situation even graver. Public contracts, meant to uplift marginalised communities, appear to have been reduced to personal fiefdoms. When political influence shields non-performance, governance collapses, and citizens lose faith in the system.
What Kuntwara needs now is not more files, but concrete action-literally. The FIRs must translate into swift prosecution, assets of defaulters should be attached if needed, and the project must be reassigned to competent agencies under strict timelines. Simultaneously, a thorough investigation should unearth the entire nexus that allowed such brazen defiance of law and public interest. The residents of Kuntwara have waited long enough. They deserve not pity or promises, but justice and connectivity. A stretch of road separates them from inclusion in the modern India that the rest of the country celebrates. Ensuring that this road is completed-without further delay-will be the truest test of the administration’s resolve to uphold accountability and restore faith in governance.
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