People living under miserable condition
Govind Sharma
JAMMU: About 85% population of Ward No 47 of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) is poor and most of the people belonged to Scheduled Caste (SC) category, who have been living under unhygienic condition with no proper basic facilities like water and electricity, lanes and drains, etc.
The Ward mainly comprised old Bahu Fort, New Bahu Fort, Bazzigar Basti, Ravi Dass Mohalla, Mahasha Mohalla, Gujjar Basti, Shabad Colony, Kachha Talab, Pakki Talai, Centre Mohalla, Qasim Nagar and Rajeev Nagar.
In most of the localities, people do not have proper houses, water and electricity connections. Moreover, there are no lanes and drains and wherever exist, these are in poor condition. Some families are living in single room houses while some are residing in ‘kuccha’ houses. In Mahasha Mohalla, Qasim Nagar, Baazigar Basti and Ravi Dass Mohalla, people are living under extreme poverty.
Vandana Kumari of Mahasha Mohalla said that there are about 8 members in her family and they are living in one room and had no toilet facility. She said like them many other families are living under poor condition and are deprived of Government’s welfare schemes.
Ravi Kumar of Ravi Dass Mohalla said that most of the houses in their locality do not have toilets as they are poor people and some of them do not have proper houses and are living in tin sheds. He said that these poor people should get benefit of Centre’s housing scheme and financial help for toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, as they are deprived of the same due to illiteracy, ignorance and lack of awareness.
Ram Lal of Pacca Talab said that the road from Pacca Talab to Kaccha Talab is in worst condition. We do not remember when it was blacktopped last time, he said, adding, due to large and deep potholes, it has become accident prone and it is difficult to ride a two-wheeler or drive a car on this road.
Bishan Dass of Rajeev Nagar said that due to a deep nallah from Rajeev Nagar to Shamshan Ghat, people of Qasim Nagar and other localities falling between the two points are facing numerous problems as there are only few culverts on the nallah and in rainy season, due to flood in the nallah children and men feel helpless as they cannot go to school or at work.
“People of every locality, particularly Kaccha Talab, Mahasha Mohalla and Qasim Nagar are facing acute scarcity of water as water supply pipes were laid about three decades back and since then population has seen a massive increase in the Ward. There is also leakage in supply lines as most of the pipes have damaged due to corrosion”, Farooq Ahmed of Shabad Colony said, adding, due to negligence of field workers of PHE Department, a large quantity of drinking water goes down the lanes.
Puran Chand of New Bahu Fort said that there is a single dispensary in the Ward but no medicines are there. “Even bandage and tetanus injections are not available there and the patients have to purchase the same from the market, so nobody prefers to go there”, he said, adding either such dispensaries should be closed or proper medicines and allied items made available there.
Corporator of the Ward, Sharda Kumari of the BJP, while talking to Excelsior, said she fought Municipal elections solely with the purpose of serving the people of her area and now when people of the Ward have given the responsibility, she will try her best to ensure that at least basic facilities like shelter, water, electricity, good roads, etc reach to the people.
“Being illiterate and less educated, people of my ward are deprived of various Government schemes and it will be my endeavour to take these schemes to door step of the people”, the Corporator said, adding, she is in talk with PDD authorities to organize a special camp in the area to provide free electricity connections to the BPL families.
On a question, Sharda Kumari said that as a Corporator it will be her priority that those living in tin sheds or Kuccha houses in her ward may get benefit of Pradhan Mantra Awas Yojana. The Corporator said that she has already started collecting details of such families.
Her another priority will be to aware the women of her ward and motivate them to make a Self Help Group so that they can set up a small entity where besides them other poor women of the Ward may get employment. “I will also ensure that a Creche/Day Care centre is opened in the Ward so that children of working women do not suffer”, she added.
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