Shiv Kumar Padha
Perhaps Basohli is the rarest of the rare case in Jammu and Kashmir where an oldest tehsil of the state is still a tehsil even after its successive divisions into six tehsils and four sub divisions from time to time in the past.
Many tehsils which started their journey long after Basohli, the largest duggar state, attained district hood quite early because of their proper representations by their local and capable MLAs.
Had the local representatives advocated in favour of district hood for Basohli and the jammu and Kashmir government had implemented the wazir commission recommendations on merits, with transparency, honesty, without prejudice or ill will Basohli would have got district hood much earlier. But the non local MLAs, who considered Basohli as their colony and launching pad for their flights, always sabotaged its ally speaking, Basohli was one of the vast and most prosperous among the 22 duggar states.
There was a time when Basohli was considered as a hub of trade between the adjoining states of Punjab and Himachal Pardesh and has contributed a lot towards the cultural horizon of the state.
According to an agreement between the Sikh rulers of Lahore and the East India Company in March 1846 Maharaja Gulab Singh was recognized as independent and sovereign ruler of Jammu and Kashmir. According to the conditions laid down in the agreement, Basohli lost its entity as a separate Duggar state and was merged with jammu and Kashmir spread over 84 thousand square miles.
There were 74 vllages in the erstwhile Basohli state before its merger with Jammu.
After the merger of Bhaddu, Sumrata and Ram Nagar the erstwhile Duggar state Basohli was made a full-fledged tehsil of Kathua district much before 1920 which was spread over 144 villages and ts territories touching Bhadarwah in the north, Chamba HP in the east, Ram Nagar in the west and district Gurdaspur in the south. With the passage of time the process of division and sub division of this vast tehsil started resulting into the formation of tehsil Billawer in 1965, Bani 2007, Mahanpur, Mlahar , and Ram Kot in the year 2018.
Owing to the disproportionate divisions many niabats, CD blocks, and Panchyat Halqas which had been once part of tehsil Basohli were merged with the newly created tehsils. During the last up gradation of tehsils to district hood, in the light of Wazir Commission recommendations, the case of Basohli tehsil was neither pleaded nor was represented properly at the political as well as at the administrative level with the result this tehsil was kept off the panel, where on the contrary new districts, like the one Samba were framed in Jammu division with their headquarters falling hardly within 20 Km.
Radius where a person can travel throughout the two districts in 3 hours on personal car or motor bike. It is pertinent to mention here that some powerful and influential MLAs/ ministers from Kashmir division managed converting their tehsils into complete district without joining any other tehsil or Niabat whereas other MLAs from Kashmir created new districts by joining only one Niabat with their tehsil.
Kathua is the district head quarter of Bani, Basohli, Billawer, Mahanpur, Machhedi, Ram Kot, Kathua and Hira Nagar tehsils. In the case of tehsil Heera nagar and Kathua, any person from the farthest corner of these tehsils can reach district head quarter at kathua maximum in one hour on the personal vehicle and two hours by bus. whereas a man from far off villages of Bani and Malhar needs at least four days to attend the offices at the district head quarter with two intervening nights either at Basohli or at Kathua which tells badly upon the pocket of the poor people due to the sky high rates of transportation, accommodation and meals. Geographically, , 75% of the total area, of the kathua district, is occupied by Bani, Basohli , Billawer, Ram Kot, Malhar , Dugan and Mahan Pur tehsils ( all carved from the old Basohli tehsil) alone. According to the topography Basohli, Bani, Machhedi and Mahanpur have scattered population which lives in the isolated habitats.
For ensuring speedy development, social justice, taking administration to the portals of the masses, providing health, education facilities and employment opportunities to the present number of newly created tehsils of Kathua district there is a need of creating at least one new hilly district at Basohli the most suitable, accessible and acceptable to all because;
- Basohli is a tehsil which came into existence after it was merged with Jammu and Kashmir state under an act between the East India Company and Lahore Durbar in 1848 along with 144 villages.
- With the Passage of time Basohli had to pass through divisions and sub divisons with the result the single tehsil has been broken into six tehsils and four sub divisions.
- The non local MLAs, who have been representing the Basohli constituency since independence, have always considered it as their colony who did never spare any moment in sabotaging the genuine causes of Basohli.
- Basohli is situated on the historical trade route between India and Jammu and Kashmir during 17th century.
- The Completion of Atal Setu, a bridge over river Ravi, has changed the whole geographical scenario of Basohli Because it has not only emerged as a geometrical centre of the newly created 8 tehsils (out of Basohli) but Basohl has got good connectivity with all the 8 off shoots of Basohl and the entire country by roads. All the roads (life lines) from Udham Pur, Bhaderwah,Bani Billawer, Himachal Pardesh and Punjab converge at Basohli with the result there is no dearth of connectivity within and outside the state.
Owing to the natural beauty and being the confluence of three states UT of J&K, Punjab and H1machal Pardesh Basohli has now become the hub of tour1sm, Ayurveda, art culture and pashm1na industry in the state. 1t !s pert1nenent to ment1on here that on the d1recton of state admnstrat1on a feasiblty report was sought from ADC Basohl1 though DC Kathua letter No. DCK/SQ/2019-20/745 dated 30-07-2019 wh1ch was stands submitted by ADC Basohli with the recommendations’ (Enclosed) on 09-08-2019 v1de h1s No.ADC/BSL/2019-20/574.. - All the district level offices like DIET, ADC,JNV, divisions of forest, PDD, PWD and like others are already functioning here and there is no scarcity of buildings and infrastructure meant for district offices to start with.
Granting district hood to Basohli will be in the interest of both Jammu and Kashmir Government and the people because it will pave the way for the desired, equitable development of the whole area and help develop Basohli into a trade and tourist hub and trade corridor. Moreover the legitimate claimants will get justice which they have been denied since Independence because accord1ng to a rule Basohl1 tehsil is a whole and its fragments are its parts hence before granting distrcthood to any of these tehsils It must be born in mind that ‘A Part Of Any Thing Can Not Be Greater Than Its Whole’
(The author is a
social activist from Basohli).
