Shiv Kumar Padha
It is for the first time since independence that we have got Dr. Jitender Singh as Member Parliament from our own ilk that can raise the voice of those people who have never been represented properly in the Parliament. The MPs who have represented the Udhampur-Kathua Constituency earlier have either been showcased permanently in the Parliament or have used the poor and innocent people of the hilly areas as ladder to reach the higher echelons of power and establishing their empires in and outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Dr. Jitender Singh, a member of the Pahari ilk, is familiar with the hardships and the problems the people in hilly Tehsils are generally confronted with and has got the full competence to get these people out of the hardships and also help enable them avail the facilities which their counterparts in other Tehsils of the State have been availing since long. Basohli and Bani Tehsils of Kathua District are the twin Tehsils which share the same umbilical cord and have always been confronted with almost same type of the problems and hardships.
Basohli and Bani Tehsils are scattered over more than half of the total area of the district Kathua with 70 per cent population belonging either to scheduled cast or scheduled tribe. The majority of people in Bani and that in the hilly terrain of Basohli Tehsil live in scattered habitats and are reeling under acute poverty. The people are too poor to afford two square meals for the families. In the machine age they are lost to their ancestral vocations like pit looms, making bamboo baskets, Pandoroos ( A barrel type container made from bamboos to store grains ) and Pankhars ( a type of curtain woven by bamboo strips ). Due to the shrinking of the forests the people have stopped rearing goats and milk yielding animals.
There are almost negligible facilities in the field of health care in both the twin Tehsils. The hospitals and the dispensaries of these Tehsils sans both doctors and drugs.
It is disgusting that there is neither any blood bank which can prove a succour to the victims of excessive bleeding in the event of accident or delivery cases nor there is any fire fighting provision en route Udhampur to Basohli and Kathua to Sarthal, the last corner of the State. Many houses of the poor people and those of the nomads are gutted every year as a result of accidental fires which takes the precious lives of the humans and that of the livestock.
Educationally the people living in the remotest and inaccessible corners of the Bani and Basohli Tehsils are deprived of their fundamental right of acquiring education of their choice. Higher education for the youth of these areas is like a mirage.
The hilly terrains of these Tehsils lack in facilities of connectivity. The entire population lives in the scattered habitats which are too scattered to meet in the event of some calamity. The serious patients are brought to the nearby hospitals either on the human backs or by the Palkies where number of the so brought patients are declared as brought dead.
The Bani apples are sweet, crispy and juicy and are in no way inferior to the apples being grown in Kashmir but as the ill luck would have it the apple of Bani is being meted out step motherly treatment by none other than our own government. Due to the neglect of our own welfare government the Bani apple is not finding its buyer beyond the markets of Basohli, Mahanpur and Billawar where these apples are sold at throw away price.
The twin Tehsils of the Kathua District are gifted with the picturesque valleys, meadows, lush green pastures, snow clad mountains, rattling brooks, grooves of deodar trees and the water falls by the bountiful nature. But due to the apartheid policy of the elected government of the State the tourism of these Tehsils is being sacrificed at the altar of Kashmir centric politics.
The natives of the hilly Tehsils see a streak of hope in the person of Dr. Jitender Singh MoS in PM Office who can prove a succour for them only. The measures as being suggested can go a long way in addressing the grievances of the people, bring prosperity and infuse in them the spirit and zeal to live happy and prosperous life in future.
1.All weather connectivity between each hamlet and the nearest town or Tehsil head quarter be provided.
2.The hospitals at Bani and at Basohli and the dispensaries in the villages be provided with sanctioned number of doctors, surgeons and medicines. The SDH Bani and CHC Basohlibe equipped with gadgets from X-Rays to the CT Scan and blood bank and the blood transfusion facilities. The operation theaters of these hospitals be made operational.
3.The facility of Air Ambulance provided to the people living in hilly area.
4.Poverty eradication programmes should be disseminated to these areas.
5.The satellite campus for the aspirants of higher education from the remote and inaccessible areas of Basohli, Bani and Billawer Tehsils be established at Basohli.
6.The tourism of Bani and Basohli be brought on the tourist map of India.
7.A number of avenues of education and employment be placed before the youth enabling them to choose vocation and education of their choice.
8.The apple crop of Bani be given VIP treatment like the one in Kashmir so that the Bani apple can compete with the apple of Kashmir in the market.
9.One KendriyaVidyalay, which once existed as Basohli Kendriya Vidyalay at Basohli Camp Lakhanpur and now renamed as Kendriya Vidyalay Lakhanpur again be restored to its actual claimant town Basohli.
10.A separate polytechnic college is the genuine and need felt demand of the youth of these hilly Tehsils which needs be fulfilled in the near future positively.
11.Provision for the reservation of seats in the professional colleges of other states be made for the aspirants from the hilly Tehsils.
12.In order to fight fires in the hilly areas special fire tendering services must be provided at Billawar, Basohli and Bani.