Dera Ki Gali-Surankote (Poonch), March 6
From a den of militancy to the best example of return to normalcy. This is the pleasing transformation of this region, where people were once even afraid of venturing out during daytime.

There was a time when troops preferred not to tread through this militancy-hit area on the Jammu-Poonch Highway after the sunset, but in what can be seen as a sign of return to normalcy in the state, vehicles are now plying even late at night through this densely-forested area.

Things were particularly alarming when District and Sessions Judge, Rajouri, VK Phull, his two Personal Security Officers (PSOs) and three others were killed at Donar village, about 2 km from here, on December 5, 2001.

But things have changed for better now with the area remaining comparatively free of any sought of militant activity for long.

“This area used to be so heavily infested by militants that a few years ago, leave alone the common man, even the security forces wouldn’t prefer to take this route after the sunset. But the security forces have managed to clear this area of the militants. Now, not only the vehicular traffic but also we can move in the area till late night”, said Feroz Khan, a local farmer. “We salute the security forces for keeping this area clear of militant activity”.

Not only are the locals happy over the returning of normalcy in the area, even commercial vehicle drivers are elated.

“My earnings have increased thanks to the peace that has returned in the area. I get many passengers wanting to travel even at the dead of night now”, said Ali, a Tata Sumo driver.

A police official said effort of security forces, political will and cooperation of the masses has brought in the sea change in the life of inhabitants.

Most of the people here are Gujjars, who were dependent on the highway for living. Farmers can now easily transport agriculture produce and business activity has also improved.

Jammu, March 6
It seems that PoK refugees are yet to come to terms with their socio-economic conditions in the city even after more than 60 years. Though father-son feuds are traditional and familiar to all, septuagenarian Ram Kumar (name changed) and his only son are at odds because of the curse of poverty. 

“We had a happy family in PoK. My father and grandfather were employees with the Maharaja of Poonch. Grandfather got skilled in the production of armoury in Europe and used to do the same work for Maharaja,” he said recounting events of his past life.

The Partition brought devastation in his life. Ram Lal shifted to the city and took to carpentry to earn livelihood. He got married and had three daughters and a son. Subsequently, he got his family a small home at Mazdoor Basti in the heart of the city.

Fate further dealt him a blow when he underwent a kidney operation. Nevertheless, he did not give up and continued to struggle. He married off his two daughters and was to marry off his third daughter when he fell off the second story while working.

Since then Ram Lal has been differently abled and has accepted his fate. “My son has left home and works as a daily wager in Delhi while the third daughter is working in some private school,” he said and added that his wife’s eyesight was poor.

“Whatever my daughter earns from school and tuition gets spent on our medicines and household affairs. The income is less than the needs of my family,” he said.

“What would happen to us after the marriage of my daughter? It’s a thought that keeps haunting me day and night,” he said.

He shows an old file and starts pulling out documents like the ownership certificate of his ancestral house in PoK to support his claim that he is genuinely a refugee.

“I wrote to ministers and sought some kind of compensation, but to no avail,” he concludes.

President, SOS International, Rajiv Chuni said, “Even today, PoK refugees are putting up in camps for want of basic amenities. We did not get even a penny in the name of relief. We just seek refugee status that has been denied to us.” 

Jammu, March 6
For 32-year-old Ranjit Kumar (name changed), the dream to get married was shattered twice, as both the times his would be in-laws demanded that Kumar should first secure a government job.

Kumar like more than 1,900 of his counterparts, has fallen prey to the false claims of the successive state governments. He holds an electrician diploma from the ITI and has been protesting outside the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, for the past many days.

Though, the new state government agreed that the issue of unemployment had been one of the biggest problems confronting the state, however, no measures have been taken to redress the grievances of 1,900 protesting ITI electrician diploma holders. More than 3,500 engineering degree holders have been protesting outside the office of the Divisional commissioner, Jammu, for the past 702 days.

“Twice my marriage was postponed as my in-laws wanted me to have a government job, but the successive state governments have played with my sentiments,” Ranjit Kumar said. The ITI electrician diploma holders allege that despite having a vacancy of 10,000 posts, the Power Development Department was not considering to appoint the skilled youth of the state.

“There are more than 10,000 vacancies lying vacant in the PDD and there has been no recruitment for the past 28 years, the government appoints daily wagers, who are totally illiterate, these people are later appointed as class 4 employee, who do our jobs in the department,” said president of the ITI electrician diploma holders Rakesh Sharma. “As a protest we are on a sit-in for the past 702 days, but all our requests have fallen to deaf ears,” he added.

He said the successive state governments have made various promises to them. Even Omar Abdullah during his election campaign had promised job for us within one month of his attaining the office, however, so far nothing has been done in this regard,” Sharma said. He alleged that many of the diploma holders have crossed the age-limit to get a government job.

Just next to the protesting unemployed ITI diploma holders are the unemployed engineering degree and diploma holders, who have been protesting for the past so many days. They also allege that despite having the vacancies, government was noncommittal in providing them jobs.

“There are more than 14,000 engineering posts vacant in the various departments and the number of unemployed engineers is only 3,500. Government can take steps to appoint us in various departments,” said vice president of the unemployed engineering degree holders Rajesh.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had said the issue was under consideration. “The government would explore the possibility to absorb them only after the Lok Sabha elections are over.” Omar said.

Srinagar, March 6
For 90-year-old mason Abdul Rahman Shansaz, a six-day training in making earthquake-resistant structures would help save human lives and property.

“We have learnt some valuable tips. We will, hereafter, carry the skills forward,” said Shansaz, a resident of Ali Kadal in the old city. “It has been a fruitful exercise for us. I have six more masons working with me. I would impart the skills learnt over here to them and they would carry it further,” said Abdul Qadir, a middle-aged mason from Kralpora.

“We were shown how to make an earthquake-resistant structure. Now, we can suggest measures to our customers accordingly,” said a participant Mohammad Ayoub, while working on the introduction of a seismic belt in a structure as a part of retrofitting training being imparted to masons.

Project coordinator, the Disaster Management Center, Kashmir, Aamir Ali said, “People should know that solutions are available at a low cost. They can take a few measures and their houses are safe. There is no need for dismantling non-earthquake-resistant structures, as it would cost them 8-10 per cent extra.” “Most of the structures here are non-engineered and role of masons in such a scenario is crucial,” said Aamir.

The training programme was organised by the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). According to Aamir, 400 masons had registered themselves with the office. “It was not possible to provide training to all. So, we selected 50 masons, who had registered from Srinagar for the training, rest would be taken up at a later stage,” said Aamir.

Speaking on the traditional structures in Kashmir, honorary joint director-technical, the National Centre for Peoples’ Action in Disaster Preparedness, Rajendra Desai said, “Dejiwara and taakh system are fantastic, but as enormous timber is used in such types of construction, the same is not viable. Question is that we have to find alternative with respect to the present times. Besides, quality of material is to be ensured and house-owner has to be willing to go for the earthquake-resistant structures.”

Desai said, “My concern is that structures should not be demolished, they can be retrofitted unless there is space crunch. Installing seismic belt in a structure functions like a band, which is very important in structures here,” he said. “There has to be throw stone (header) at every feet of wall, otherwise it can collapse. In case, brick columns are not constructed with reinforcement, they can collapse,” he added.

Head of department (civil engineering), National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, AR Dar said earthquake-resistant structures could save lives of people. He said retrofitting would help a lot in mitigating losses. “We can not afford to dismantle structures, as it would be an expensive and time consuming exercise. Retrofitting is a technique that could make unsafe structures safe. People generally concentrate on aesthetics and forget about safety,” he said. 

Udhampur, March 6
With the onset of the summer season, the shortage of drinking water has again emerged as a big problem for inhabitants of Udhampur and the adjoining areas.

Although the authorities have implemented various plans and schemes to solve the problem, but these schemes seem to be executed only on papers, as the residents of Udhampur, especially those living in the Kandi belt and the rural localities have to cover long distances to fetch water to quench their thirst during the summer.

The gravity of the problem could be gauged from the fact that the residents of Udhampur require 34 lakh gallons of water every day but the supply has been only 20 lakh gallons from all the sources.

Known for its springs, popularly called as “bowlies” in Dogri language, people of Udhampur, earlier used to quench their thirsts from natural resources, but most of these resources became dry due to apathetic attitude of the locals as well as government authorities. With natural resources virtually becoming dry, the authorities at the helm of the affairs are also non-serious in solving this problem.

“Shortage of drinking water is biggest problem in this belt,” superintending engineer of public health engineering (PHE) Varinder Badyal told The Tribune, while admitting the scheme implemented under the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM), which would be completed in the month of September this year. “It is difficult to fill the gap of 14 lakh gallons of water per day,” the officer admitted and claimed that the department has decided to construct a filtration plan at the Slbay area to solve this problem.

With much publicity, the then PHE minister, Mohammad Dilawar Mir, had announced a comprehensive water supply with an estimated cost of Rs 2,882 lakh for Udhampur in the month of April 2007. It was promised that the scheme would be implemented in phased manner and problem of the shortage of water would be solved within three years.

“Two years have already been passed and there is no chance of the implementation of the said scheme in the coming three years,” said Arvind Khajuria, a resident of Barian, while doubting credibility of the PHE authorities. While as the authorities seem to be very optimistic about this scheme, residents are of the view that many schemes have been implemented but their woes remained the same.

“For the past 10 years, authorities have been promising to mitigate our miseries but nothing has been done so far,” said Suresh Kumar, a resident of Thanoa village. “At our village women have to track a long distance of about 2km to collect drinking water,” informed Suresh.

Echoing similar concern, chief organiser of the mohalla vikas committee, Bharat Nagar, Udhampur, Desh Kumar Dalotra said their area has been worst affected as far as shortage of water is concerned. “We have to install water pumps directly with the pipes to get some water at the time of supply as without these pumps water could not reach their places,” he said.

Although water scarcity has been the biggest problem in Udhampur, situation is worst in the rural areas adjoining this town. Inhabitants of the two panchayats, namely Roun and Bradian, comprising a population of 12,000 souls are the worst victims of this problem. “Most of the natural resources are dry and we are totally dependent upon a few PHE taps.”

Sarpanch of the Bradian panchayat Raghuvir Chander told The Tribune and informed that the PHE authorities supply water only once in five days. “Every summer we have to launch agitation to get supply of water on alternative days,” he said. Residence of Thill, Roun, Brarian, Bradian, Battal, Lehri have to track more than 5km to fetch water from 
a “bowli”.