Shadow Correspondent
JAMMU, May 21:
The political activity for public representation in J&K has come to a screeching halt after the dissolution of the Legislative assembly. It appears that the elected representatives from all political parties including cabinet ministers have divorced the people who put them to power once. The Numberdar/ Chowkidar/ Panchayat system is paralyzed due to non implementation of 73rd amendment. The Panchayats are still toothless and resource less. The declared “three tier system” is yet to see the light of the day since no Tehsil, Distt or State level councils have been formed.
It is not possible for everybody to find access to the Governor’s high office or to reach his Advisers, especially after the Durbar move to summer capital.
Various delegations have been approaching the Dogra Sadar Sabha (DSS) with their genuine and pressing problems.
Taking on its traditional role and responsibility of public representation, the DSS held a protest march from Sabha Bhawan to the Statue of Shri Jambu Lochan near Ranbireshwar Chowk and sat in a symbolic Dharna to highlight and project the hardships of the Dogra region.
Thereafter at 2:00 PM a fifty men strong delegation of DSS comprising of distinguished senior citizen, Armed forces Veterans, prominent members of Jammu Society, Sarpanch and Panch and representatives of various institutes, and organizations from all communities, met with the Divisional Commissioner Shri Sanjeev Verma in his office UNDER PRESIDENT DSS and presented him a memorandum for the Hon’ble Governor Shri Satya Pal Malik. The Divisional Commissioner Sh. Sanjeev Verma discussed all the points in detail and assured proper action on the projected issues.
The memorandum included points regarding the crumbling Heritage buildings an Mubarak Mandi and the slow pace of action after the Hon’ble Governor has approved an initial sanction of 65Cr to kick start the restoration work. The archives files moved earlier to Kala Kendra are being shifted back to old Information Deptt building WITHOUT restoration while the Rs 50 Lakh allocated for restoration by the last government is spent out on peripheral works.
The stalled work on ‘Four Lanes’ on Udhampur-Ramban Road has scuttled tourism besides the local sub-sub contractors have not been paid their dues.
Th. Gulchain Singh Charak expressed his great concern about the situation in Bhadarwah and called it a deliberate design to hamper tourism to “Chhota Kashmir” and create unemployment, communal discord and disturbances and create Kashmir like conditions in this peaceful region known for communal harmony and brotherhood.
The Door Darshan Jammu Kendra is almost defunct and near closer due to paucity of funds, caused by discriminatory allocations. The artists are rendered jobless and the projection of Dogri/Gojri/Pahari languages scuttled.
The Education Deptt. have declared 51number of schools who were earlier in summer zone to be now part of winter zone, vide a Government of J&K order and enforced it from the current session. This is without any change of their physical location and consideration of climatic change. The arbitrary uncalled for decision has caused discomfort to thousands of students and their parents and must be rolled back immediately.
The DSS has been in regular touch with people of the state and thus projecting their genuine grievance. Kindly issue orders for the concerned Government agencies to kindly resolve the above said issues. The DSS also takes the opportunity to Review progress of pressing burning issues projected to the State Government earlier.
President DSS appealed to people in Jammu Division to be vigilant and never fall prey to the evil designs of those trying to create communal or any other disturbance; stay united. The important personalities in the delegation included, Prof. N. K. Dogra, Sh. Prem Sagar Gupta, Col. Dr Virendra K. Sahi, VrC, Gambhir Dev Singh Charak, Maj. Gen. Mrs. Sunita Kapoor (Retd) VSM, Santosh Magotra, Janak Khajuria, Amanat Ali Shah, Dr. O. P. Saini, Sdr. Kulbir Singh, Chhankar Singh, Dr. Raghubir Singh, Madan Bhagat, Sdr. Sukhdev Singh, Sdr. Mehar Singh, Raj Kumar, Balwant Saini, Girdhari Lal, Madan Rangeela, J.S. Babli, Dharam Chand President DSS Ramban, Mohd. Ashraf Sarpanch Chanderkot, Salam Din Contractor Chanderkot, Raj Singh Sarpanch Seri Ramban, Ramesh Singh Sarpanch Bagni, Musabar Ali Contractor Ramban, Sartaj Ali Contractor Ramban, Magal Dass Dogra, Srd. Sudarshan Singh, Baldev Raj and Bharat Bhushan Talwar.
