Public expects Army type discipline, management from Corporator

Stray animals, lack of public transport

Sanjeev Sharma

JAMMU: Due to the alleged mess by the authorities at the helm, Ward Number 69 of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) which includes most part of Sainik Colony is mostly inhabited by non-army people now, which was not the motive behind establishing this Colony.
This Ward comprised of Sainik Colony Sectors A, B, C and G and among areas on the other side of by-pass highway it contains Sector C and all the area till Sunjwan and Chowadi along the army wall.
A direct talk with the locals of the Ward brought to fore problems which public here faces daily while clear resentment from the army families was also noted.
“For the families of retired army-men most part of the life was spent in a disciplined culture but discipline is a distant dream now as all sorts of personalities, having no link to the army, have now settled in the Sainik Colony,” family members of a retired army officer said on the condition of not being named.
“Some members of Cooperative House Building Society of Sainik Colony misguided the army people buying the plots in the Colony by saying that the property is disputed,” Balkar-a retired army-man said.
“Some like me told Housing Society that we too can fight disputes when time will come and stayed here while others were cheated and they sold their precious lands at throwaway prices,” he further said.
He said that in this way the innocent Fojis were befooled and their plots were further sold at exorbitant rates by the Housing Society people to non-army people.
Shamsher Singh-son of a retired army-man informed that initially land earmarked for a hospital in the colony but in the last 30 years none has even uttered a word on this.
“In the meantime mafia in the Housing Society also grabbed that land. The colony had also planned facilities like temple, playground, Public Park etc but same mafia swindled all that lands too,” he further said.
Apart from this the public of this Ward is also facing the problems of stray animals and lack of proper public transport facilities.
Balbir Singh-50, a shopkeeper said that people leave their cattle after milking them and these animals roam freely in lanes and on road and litter here and there spoiling the lanes.
“Even sometimes these animals sit at the midst of the roads which results in long traffic jams,” he said appealing to the cattle owners to not to abandon their animals like this after milking them.
Indu Rani-a housewife in the area said that stray dogs are really a horrific thing in the Ward.
“Some NGOs shelter these canines at residential places though in documents they have shown some place away from residential areas for accommodating such dogs,” she said making an appeal to such NGOs to follow the rules honestly.
She also said that children cannot go for cycling fearlessly as such dogs chase them and elders in the society too feel scared of these dogs.
“These dogs litter on streets and create unhygienic atmosphere,” she said.
She also said that stray dogs and cows raid garbage dumps and make the entire area dirty.
Sonia-a college going girl said that public transport service like some minibus is urgently needed in the Ward which may reach to each part of the Ward.
“The Sainik Colony minibus service is only restricted to main road and not reaches interiors. The people living in interiors and having no personal conveniences have to travel to the main road to catch the minibus,” she informed.
Apart from all this, there were also many more problems in the Ward like those due to absence of street lights at many places, problems of lanes and drains, garbage disposal etc.
After the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections, Gurmeet Kour Randhawa has been elected as the Corporator of the Ward. She is wife of an army officer and also mother of another army officer and the Ward people feel that the area will soon have army type discipline and management with all the things set in proper order.
In an interaction with EXCELSIOR, Gurmeet Kour Randhawa talked about her plans to improve the Ward.
“When the colony came into existence people started construction of houses and there were no drains in streets. So the households let the waste water into the nearby vacant plots which gave rise to more problems,” she said adding that laying the network of drains in the Ward will be her priority.
She expressed concern over leaving of the debris by the people on road after constructions works and said that those who spend crores of rupees in constructs should spend a few hundred more on debris removal to avoid harassment to others and to maintain cleanliness in the area.
Randhawa said that her Ward lacks street lights at some places and assured that soon things will change in this regard soon and public parks in the area will also be properly maintained.
She further informed that the Nallahs in the locality will be improved with green stretch along their banks to facilitate morning walkers.
She also asked the people giving their plots to labourers to give them toilet facilities too as these labourers defecate in open in the absence of toilet facilities and make the area dirty.
Randhawa said that roads in the Ward also need to be repaired and CCTV cams installed at some important spots to check crime.
She said that awareness on hazards of drugs is must to beat the menace of addiction among youth.
On garbage disposal, she said that there are containers but some people use vacant plots as dumping places and she appealed to such people to use containers or avail the services of door to door collection system.
On increased use of poly-bags, she said that entire Jammu should say no to these bags and prefer bags made of degradable materials.
She also said that traffic problem is also there in the Ward and informed that at Railway Bridge there are frequent jams due to the road being very narrow.
“I will appeal railway authorities to expand their bridge as it will facilitate the road expansion beneath the bridge for double lanning,” she maintained.

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