Mohammad Tahir:
SRINAGAR: At a time when parliamentary elections are at the corner in Kashmir, people from some of parliamentary constituencies underscored that they have not seen any kind of developments in their respective districts and now they are expecting the basic facilities in terms of BSP (Bijli, Sadak, Pani) in their areas.
There are six parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir that includes of summer capital Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag, while Ladakh, Udhampur and Jammu falls in the winter zones of this state.
On March 10, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the polling dates for parliamentary elections in Jammu & Kashmir. The elections will be held in five phases, while as the ECI also announced that elections to the sensitive Anantnag constituency that includes of Pulwama district will be held in three phases.
Zubair Ahmad of Soura Srinagar looks the forthcoming parliamentary elections differently, for him the parliamentary elections of 2019 will be a, ‘ray of hope’ as there are new faces who are very much dedicated towards the development, and he hopes that the basic facilities will be provided to the laymen, initially for which they votes.
“I believe the development is Bijli, Sadak and Pani (BSP) apart from this leads to you an extra development in terms of employment to the unemployed youth, war against corruption as most of the people in government departments have not yet mend their illegal practices, drug addiction among the young ones is also a burning issue in our valley, said Zubair Ahmad.
He further expressed his thoughts that, the people of Kashmir has been always made fools by showing green meadows, whereas the reality is, there are scores of districts in Kashmir that are still underdeveloped.
Another resident of Baramulla Ghulam Mohammad said that, the condition of roads are bad that one can hardly walk or drive, people are facing hassles daily as it is teeming with potholes, dust and piles of garbage on roads.
“Authorities continue to uses debris to fill up potholes and it is a routine affair, done every year, and dust often flies,” he claimed.
Bashir Ahmad Khan of Kalaroos Kupwara says that, there are dozens of villages in their frontier district that don’t have either piped water supply, thus making people living in these areas depend on open sources of water, often contaminated and with the result the authorities concerned are putting their lives at risk.
“Our womenfolk have been made depend on other sources of water as they fetch drinking water from nearby streams, nallahs, springs and sometimes they use ground water, adding these are the basic facilities of which we have been deprived of,” said Khan.
Sheikh Fayaz of Uri area said that, they have hardly seen electricity during the recent winters, as according to him the power electricity has almost gone with the durbar move as most of the power has been has diverted to the Jammu region.
“We use chimneys to illuminate our houses during evening hours, while as rest of the hours we manages, while as there are most of the power projects in their area, and for them the development means the uninterrupted power supply so that they will not face difficulties in terms of electricity,” said Fayaz Ahmad.
He added people want development in terms of uninterrupted power supply, good roads, and drinking water so that the minimum requirements of life can be fulfilled and later on other developments or improvements takes a back seat for common masses.