Exploitation in the name of fundamental problems: how long?
After its formation the new government announced it would pull people out problems and change the basic structure of state administration. Governments in the past also made tall promised of providing water, electric power, good roads and good education. They did not fulfill the promises. Still our womenfolk carry pitchers of clean water on their head over a distance of two or three kilometers because clean drinking water is not available to them at hand. During the regime of Omar Abdullah, Zero Bridge of Srinagar could not be repaired. It remains in that state. We are not aware what the priorities of the new government are. However, we would like to enlist main problems so that authorities know what the people think.
State Employees:
Average ratio of employees in any
Indian State is 450/600//800 per lakh of population. In J&K the ratio is
3500 per one lakh. These functionaries and pensioners are always to be see
bringing out protest rallies on roads and parks for non payment of salaries,
pension, dearness allowances and other perks. Looking at their performance, we
find them usually short of performing their duty. They are not punctual either
for beginning of their day in the office or leaving the office. Discipline of
being punctual has to be enforced and the delivery in office needs to be
monitored at every stage.
Education:
People avoid sending their wards
to government schools. Either there is no building or there are dilapidated
structures that are perennial threat to the safety of life of the children. In
some schools students outnumber the ratio of teachers and in other teachers
outnumber the ratio of students. I know of a school in the city which has one
principal and one teacher. They bring in the children of labourers working
outside the school so that they are not displaced. I know of schools where
there are only 16 students but 22 teachers. At the same time I know of schools
with 100 students on roll but only 4 staff members. In Samba a government
school with 200 students has been provided with two teachers. Isn’t this a ploy to keep the children of the
state illiterate? This is the reason that private schools are mushrooming
everywhere. They are fleecing the people through fees, bus fares and other
clandestine means. There is no deterrence. If our children grow in these
circumstances what will be the impact on our future generations. The government
should constitute a commission to propose reformation in our educational system
along modern lines. The history of the State should be included in the school
curriculum. We have a solution for this problem. Wards of ministers,
bureaucrats and administrative officers should be admitted only in government
schools. This will force people to improve the system in government schools.
These higher status people will also understand to what depths our school
education has sunk. How shameful that in violation of the instructions of the
government, private schools charged fees from students for the months of
September and October when floods raged at full fury in the city.
Medical treatment:
Hospitals are no less than
epidemic spreading places. Four hundred
infants perished in G.B. Panth Children Hospital during the regime of Omar
Abdullah. Leave aside the question of tendering of resignation by the Health Minister
or Director of Health of Medical Superintendent, not even the ward boy of the
hospital was charged with the responsibility of this big tragedy? It stinks
even today after the floods of September last. Three or more kids occupy one
bed. But this story is true of SMHS, SKIMS, Bone and Joint hospital, Jammu
hospitals and district level hospitals. There is every possibility that a
visitor will catch one or the other illness while going through the wards.
J&K needs 300 medicines of
various varieties. But actually over 3000 medicines of different varieties are
imported in to the State for marketing. It is reported that 70 per cent of
these imported medicines are spurious. The number of people afflicted with
cancer, diabetes and other serious diseases is increasing in our state. The
toilet is the source of most of the diseases with which patients are afflicted
in our hospitals. Doctors prescribe tests from private laboratories. They get
their commission. They prefer private practice to attending their duty in the hospitals.
I have noticed government functionaries including doctors playing golf during
working hours. Who will set right this
sordid system?
Connectivity:
Billions of rupees are drawn from
state treasuries in the name of building roads and road repairs and embezzled.
I asked a contractor why these roads get washed away by a single rain.? He was
frank enough and said first cut in the funds is 15 per cent in the office of
the Minister concerned, and then 30 per cent goes to the engineers and
concerned functionaries and for submission of bills and getting these passed. If an engineer is not satisfied with
the gratis, he files adverse report and funds are withheld. In this way before
stones are laid for road construction, 50 per cent of the allocation is already
exhausted. The contractor is left with hardly 10 to 20 per cent. Actually only
35 to 50 per cent of the allocated sum is utilized for the construction of a
road or a building. This forces the contractor to lay just one inch macadam on
the soil instead of the stones. This is the reason why all the roads from
Lakhanpur to Ladakh are broken and damaged. Another reason for early damage of
these roads is that while constructing the roads dewatering system is ignored.
Just have a look at Boulevard and Foreshore Roads. Even a tiny drizzle creates
pools of water making it difficult to walk on the road. Is the current ruling
circle prepared to solve this disturbing problem of the people? No road in any
locality, colony, town or village including national highway in the state is
worth the name.
Drainage system:
Huge sums were poured in by World
Bank and Asian Bank in the State for modernizing drainage system in the towns,
villages and cities of the State. Drainage system in the city and in the towns
of the valley all is utterly broken and non functional. Why is it so? We are
told that drainage improvement contracts were given to small and private
contractors who are generally relatives and kith of the bureaucrats and
ministers. In the name of improving draining, the city of Srinagar was
destroyed and constructions were razed to ground. People have grabbed lands
along the passage of water bodies and concerned government officers have not
taken any step for its vacation since they are corrupt. The drudging system of
river, nullahs and streams remains suspended in the state since many years.
River bed is filled with silt and that caused overflow and inundation of the
city. The surface of flood channel is
visible from Rajbagh to Narbal just because much silting has piled up in its
bed.
Government should immediately
vacate illegal encroachments on the banks of these nullahs and channels. Flood
channels are dried to the extent that boys play cricket in it. Seminaries have
been built on these dry channels. If drudging is not done then more structures
will come up in due course of time.
Drudging system:
The state is crisscrossed by a
network of waterways, channels and nullahs. These need permanent
treatment. A Directorate of Drudging has
to be incepted to ensure regular annual drudging of these water bodies and to stop
encroachment. Most modern drudging machinery has to be procured by the
government to make the Drudging Directorate functional.
Wular and Dal Lakes:
Fifty years ago, the area of Dal
Lake was twenty-seven square miles. Seventy years ago Wular was 211 square
miles. Today Dal has shrunk to ten square miles and the Wular to eighty square
miles only. We have stolen the intake capacity of flood water in both lakes.
Ours is the only community that is determined to finish our water resources and
also pollute them. We are told that even spitting in water is prohibited by our
religion. But look at our selfishness and imprudence that Dal Lake has become
the toilet of at least thirty-five thousand human beings. Condition of Wular
and other lakes and rivulets is nothing different. Lake Anchar suffers the same
fate and people are grabbing their share of it besides the SKIMS. Almost all
water bodies between Srinagar and Narbal have been filled with earth and made
fit for raising structures. Thousands of migratory birds that usually would
migrate from Siberia and other parts of Russia to these lakes have stopped
coming here. We massively defy the law of the nature. Sparrows, bulbul and
other birds that were to be found in great numbers are now scarcely seen.
Forests:
At many places in Kashmir land
has begun to slip causing damage to life and property. It is because of felling
down the trees in large numbers as it makes the soil loose. Illegal felling of
trees in the State will not be stopped unless the functionaries of forest
department perform their duty honestly and sincerely. People complain about a
nexus between the Forest officials and timber smugglers. Cutting forest trees
is carried on a massive scale. Selfish and heartless people injected 200 years
old trees in Pahalgam and Tangmarg with poison and the trees dried up and thus
space was made for the expansion of the premises of private hotels at these
places. This could be done only when concerned hoteliers had the support and
backing of the government officials.
A ten-year ban on felling forest
trees of all kinds needs to be imposed. That will have good impact on
environment and climatic conditions. Dwellers around Dal should be removed and
rehabilitated elsewhere and the lake should be cleaned. Houseboats should be
removed to the banks of the river for availability of drainage and then
drudging should commence of the Dal. Plantation made on small islands in the
Dal should be removed. Drudging in Wular should also take place. Embankments
have to be reinforced. Illegal constructions have to be removed from Anchar and
Khushal SAR in Ali Kadal. Land mafia has grabbed land in Khushal SAR and it has
to be vacated.
Municipality and Development
Authority:
Municipal Corporations of
Srinagar and Jammu are overcrowded and overworked. Their decentralization is
urgently needed. Each Corporation should be sub-divided into at least half a
dozen of sub-corporations/municipal committees so that there is concrete delivery.
Contractors can be engaged by the municipal authorities to collect garbage and
litter from homes for final disposal. Charges for collection will depend on the
area covered. It could be anything from one hundred to five hundred rupees per
month per family. With the money thus saved, vehicle for disposal of garbage
can be purchased for faster collection and disposal. Safai karamcharis have to
be provided outfit and hand gloves according to the climatic conditions. In
villages trenches have to be dug where the villagers can deposit the litter,
which will be disposed off later on. They will not throw dirt in water bodies.
Disaster Management:
Disaster
Management machinery should be activated. It has to be equipped with necessary
paraphernalia. In recent Floods, water logging in Rajbagh
area could not be done for twenty-seven days. Encroachment on footpaths and
streets has to be vacated. Specific spots can be reserved for street vendors to
sell their stuff. Vendors should be given two days in a week to sell their
commodities. This is to avoid traffic jams.
Transport and traffic:
There is loud noise about change.
No change can take unless entire transport and traffic system is changed.
Passenger vehicles cause much inconvenience to the commuters. Why are such
buses allowed to ply in which there is no comfortable arrangement of seats?
Usually buses ply without breaks, license and indicators. Teen agers drive
buses and they have no driving licenses. Buses are over-crowded and sometimes
young boys and kids are made to sit on the top. These buses usually belong to
the kith of ministers and VIP who manage permits for them. In all big cities
buses and other transport vehicles are subject to annual checks to see that all
parts function normally. We have 30 or even 40 year old buses and vehicles
plying on the road and as these belong to the kith of the influential
politicians and bureaucrats, nobody wants to apply the rules to them. There are
hardly any bus stops in the city. Buses stop to pick up or drop passengers
wherever they like. It creates traffic snarls. If there is a bus stop, it is
made shabby and offensive to the public because of dirt and its untidiness.
Traffic police when on duty appear
helpless. They are not provided shelter against rain and sunshine. “On asking
some of them why they are notorious for their corruption, they say that
superiors force them to fill their pockets”
Durbar move:
It is a strange phenomenon.
Before the Durbar moves to Jammu the winter capital, the city of Jammu is give
grand face lift. After the office move, Srinagar city becomes almost a forlorn
city and except for police, no functionary is to be seen here. It gives a
deserted look. The story is repeated with offices moving back to Srinagar.
J&K Bank:
It was almost an orphan
organization in its early days. People of the State enriched it and now it has
branches all over the country and abroad. It is among premier banks. Traders,
businessmen, government employees and ordinary people of the state helped it
become a premier bank. But the irony is that it gives loans to the people of
the state against mortgaging of their properties. People taking housing and
other loans have to pay interest at the rate of 14-15 per cent while
businessmen outside the state are charged as low as 9/10 per cent interest. How
come that J&K Bank is frugal to outsiders but oppressive to locals? King
Fisher and IRE Agro of Calcutta, both from outside the state, got a loan to the
tune of more than seven billion rupees. Leave the interest aside, even the
principal amount has not been paid back.
If this huge amount was invested in the State it would have provided
employment to thousands of unemployed youth. Reports are that illegal and back
door recruitment is made in the bank and the seniors are under political
influence.
Timber:
A bag of cement is sold for 360
rupees, but a bag of cement brought from Pakistan is sold in Amritsar at rupees
257. Unscrupulous people have driven mileage from the recent floods. They have
grabbed more land and raised their house to three and four storey, whereas it
was only one storey before the flood. Wherefrom did this wealth come? Forests
are looted and timber is smuggled clandestinely. There are timber mafias
working in many parts of the state and how can they conduct illicit business
unless they are hand in glove with the functionaries of forest department.
Bribery:
Bribery and corruption are
rampant in all departments. Now it is an open secret and nobody has any qualms
of conscience in giving and taking bribes. The Vigilance organization has
failed to book corrupt functionaries and prosecute them in a court of law.
Drug trafficking and narcotics
peddling:
Drug addiction is spreading among
our youth alarmingly. The menace has spoilt so many good and reputed families.
There is a big drug mafia at work with links outside the state. Police and
Vigilance have failed to control drug proliferation. Reports are that they are
accomplices in this clandestine business and make good money out of it.
Sometimes reports come in the press that the police have made a haul of big
drug consignments and arrested people in this connection. But what punishment
was given to them is not known to anybody. College and university going
students are becoming the victims of drug addiction. Civil society and the
vigilance must cooperate and develop an effective mechanism to eradicate this
menace.
Land grabbing:
Land grabbing has been going on
in the state on a big scale. Thousands of kanals of state and forest land has
been grabbed. Land mafias have become so strong that their dismantling has
become rather difficult. There is no doubt that revenue functionaries and
police have become accomplices in this clandestine business and state land
worth billions of rupees has been grabbed and illegally occupied. Ordinary people yearn for just three or four
marlas of land to have shelter over their heads. On the other hand land grabbers
are not satisfied even after illegally grabbing hundreds of kanals. This broad
day loot of government property has to be stopped. Culprits have to be
identified ant prosecuted. All illegal occupations have to be vacated. We know many political party activists are
accomplices in land grabbing and have become owners of huge landed properties.
The former MLA from Sonawar constituency
declared NC worker, head of
Ichber NC encroached land as nursery and managed to obtain 28 lakh rupees from
MLA fund to raise the fencing wall for this illegally occupied land.
Awqaf:
This instituted also has been
subjected to loot and rapine. Nepotism and favouritism are rampant and only
close relatives are employed. The Awqaf has a large staff much larger than its
needs because this institute has enormous money. Loans are given to well to do
persons who are generally close relatives of the men at the helm of affairs.
The loan is given under the head of “qarza hasna” or soft loan which may or may
not be repaid. Normally such loans should be advanced to destitute, orphans and
widows who have no source of income. It is misuse of authority and funds. This
has to be stopped in any way. It is desirable that inquiry should be conducted
on mismanagement of funds in Awqaf.
Custodian property:
There is huge custodian property
in the State. It is in the shape of residential houses, shops, lands, and other
establishments. By and large, people with political clout are the beneficiaries
of these properties. They have almost grabbed the residential houses and shops
and pay only nominal rent. This is a huge loss to the State Exchequer.
Custodian property is subjected to general loot.
Sports:
Former Chief Minister Dr. Farooq
Abdullah was the Chairman of J&K Cricket Board. A number of scandals were
reported during his chairmanship. But since he happened to be the Chief
Minister, all scandals were hushed up and Cases were closed. No inquiry was held
in any of these scandals. Leave aside the towns of the State, even in the
capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu there is no medium size stadium where
sports loving youth would come to try their talent. Royal Golf Club has become
exclusive property of bureaucrats and VIPs who are not at all prepared to allow
a commoner admission to the club. It is for the elite only. We don’t have play
grounds and other sports facilities to which the youth are attracted
everywhere. Young boys have no play ground and they play in streets. When there
is no outlet for the energy in our youth, they will naturally take to stone
pelting, violence, and other unwanted activities.
There are endless problems. If we
are to record these in detail it would make volumes. There is no fun in crying
for change. The taste of pudding is in eating. Action on the ground is needed
and mere slogan mongering is not going to solve our problems. Time and tide
wait for no one. Youth should not be driven to wall. Accountability is the key
to the health of society. A government that shuns accountability has something
to hide from the people. But the stage of hiding is gone because people are
inquisitive and they know what is what.
I would like to make an appeal to
the Governor, the Chief Minister and to the public conscience that serious
thought be given to the deteriorating standards of governance in the State.
People in Srinagar are living under the threat of another devastating flood. Is
it not a matter of great priority to harness the flood waters by adopting all
preventive measures? We are not talking of political issues; we are talking of
good governance. That cannot be compromised. With the state of affairs
described above how can we expect that our tourist industry will flourish or
our horticulture industry will become the mainstay of State’s economy? Most of
the departments need overhauling. Their functionaries need to be infused with a
sense of duty and nationalism. They have to work above party considerations,
above considerations of cast, creed and colour and only in the interests of the
people of the State.
This article of Chairman JKDLP, Hashim Qureshi was published in various newspapers
