Patnitop aerial ropeway has met with last minute obstruction and may be delayed indefinitely. The project is a sordid story of official intricacies, complex legalities, and perhaps also deep-seated regionalism. In these columns we have been keeping close track of this project right from the time when the blue print was announced and the proceedings in initiating the project were begun. It is now almost a decade that administrative, technical, legal and logistic minutiae have mutilated the project making it sufficiently clear that there was little commiseration for its long delay and deferment. The more recent obstruction has come from the State Forest Department, which did not think it feasible to include the item in the agenda for the deliberation of the Forest Advisory Committee.
It needs to be reminded that not only the Forest, Revenue, Tourism and Environment Departments were among the stakeholders in the project, even the Supreme Court’s intervention had been sought which came out loudly in support of allowing the Patnitop Development Authority to proceed with the aerial ropeway project. Prior to it all other departments concerned had given green signal and the stage had been set for the inauguration of the project. All this business took about a decade to culminate in the nod from the Apex Court. It was presumed that last hindrance in taking up the project had been overcome with the nod from the Apex Court. But that proved a damp squib. Taking into account the approach of the Forest Department in not including the project in the agenda of the meeting of Forest Advisory Committee, one can infer that forces outside normal administrative platitude are trying to scuttle the project for unknown reasons. We do not intend to underrate all mandatory technical and administrative requirements as pre-requisites for seeing the project through. It is this consideration that delayed final approval so long. The point that we would like to emphasize is that raising eleventh hour objections has little or no rationale behind it. The objection raised by the Forest Department seemingly appears only superfluous in nature or even if it is genuine, the approach should have been to find a solution rather than relegate it to back burner which actually is the case.
Agreed that the Apex Court has ordered raising the height of the towers, the question is that how does it warrant that the Forest Department should re-open the entire case of acquiring of forest land needed for the project so that forest junior functionaries come in and make new recommendations. Senior forest authorities are not that naïve not to comprehend the implications of the orders of the Apex Court. They could have taken a decision at their level and allowed the PDA to go ahead with the project. But they have chosen to pass the buck onto their juniors in the hope that the project will be subjected to further delay of several years and at the end of the day, it will get scuttled. This is clear evidence that some agencies are at work against the project which had been cleared by two former Chief Ministers but remain stuck up with the mandarins at the Forest Department. More noticeable is the earlier antics of the Forest Department that the file pertaining to Patnitop Ropeway project had been damaged in September floods. That trick did not work, but now an administrative spoke has been thrown into the wheel.
The question is why this kind of behind the curtain conspiracy is hatched? What are the objectives of the conspirators? Who wants to scuttle the Patnitop project and why? Civil society has a right to ask questions like these. The concerned authorities must answer. The Government should come out with a clear statement on what is its policy about regional projects and what political fallout these are likely to carry? For example, it is a well-known fact that for long Jammu has been complaining of discrimination in distribution of developmental funds on various heads; it has been complaining of being exploited by majority syndrome and thus feeding the Jammu youth with hatred and mistrust. Now if a project designed to come up in Jammu region has to be dragged on for more than a decade and still its final status is unclear, does it not strengthen the belief of Jammu people that they are not treated fairly? It causes resentment and the Government is oblivious of its repercussions.
Jammu tourism has been treated like a foster child. Never was the idea of Jammu tourism development given sympathetic understanding. Unfortunately, developing tourist infrastructure in Jammu region has been viewed as rival to Kashmir tourism with apprehensions of holding back thousands of tourists from visiting Kashmir and ending up their tour with a blithe ropeway ride over the Western Shivalaks in Jammu region. This is retrograde thinking and needs to be condemned. What our State needs is inclusive development that takes all the three regions into its loop. Step motherly treatment with Jammu should stop forthwith and the needs of Jammu and Ladakh regions should be given their due. Denying Jammu region people the benefits of modernization process will in no way help Kashmir region to grow and expand its economy.
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