Space crunch, rising population major worries for Doda town
Amir Karim Tantray
Tribune News Service
Doda, July 14
Doda town, which is the heart of the Chenab valley and once served as the headquarters of the erstwhile Doda district, is faced with a major space problem as there is almost no land left for construction.
People who have come from villages have settled in the town and constructed private and commercial complexes here. Though they live in the town, on the records, they remain the residents of their ancestral villages, where they draw the benefit of being from a backward area.
Doda town is not only the headquarters of Doda district but also the centre of the Chenab valley comprising Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts.
Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Chenab, Doda town has a geographical area of around 8.2 sq km (as per the municipal limit records), but most of the area is rocky and difficult for construction.
As per the 2011 Census, around 22,000 people are the original residents of the town but unofficially, around 1,00,000 people are living in Doda town.
This could be corroborated with the fact that around 25,000 students are studying in educational institutions in the town.
The cost of the land has also gone up in the town. Whatever little land is up for sale costs above Rs 5 lakh per marla.
“On paper we have less population, but such is the mushrooming of houses and commercial complexes that the municipality employees are not able to reach out to every area. The issue is not limited to construction, it has led to traffic jams in the town which are becoming worse with each passing day,” claimed Ved Prakash Gupta, chairman of the Doda municipal committee.
“The relocation of bus stops and imposition of restrictions on the entry of load carriers in the town has not served any purpose. The traffic woes continue,” Gupta said.
He was seconded by a local businessman, Ahsanullah Ansari, who claimed that the administration had not been able to come up with a plan to upgrade the living standards in Doda town.
“Neither the government nor the administration has come up with a master plan for Doda town to address the problems faced by people. It is a historic fact that we don’t have much space available but the administration has never come up with a plan to bring the neighbouring villages closer to the district headquarters and merge them with the town to address the space woes,” Ansari said.
There are several other issues concerning the people which haven’t been addressed in the past.
“The roads in and outside Doda town haven’t been upgraded and water woes are increasing despite the fact that a water supply scheme was completed in recent past. They is no round-the-clock electricity supply despite our area being the biggest producer of hydroelectric power in the state,” claimed Shahab-ul-Haq Butt, a social worker and district president of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“Sanitation is another big issue in the town. There are heaps of garbage everywhere and the threat of an epidemic looms large,” Butt said.
1 lakh population
People who have come from villages have settled in Doda town and constructed private and commercial complexes here. Though they live in the town, in records, they remain the residents of their ancestral villages, where they draw the benefit of being from a backward area
As per the 2011 Census, 22,000 people are the original residents of the town but unofficially, around 1,00,000 people are living in Doda town
Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Chenab, Doda town has a geographical area of around 8.2 sq km (as per the municipal limit records), but most of the area is rocky and difficult for construction
"On paper we have less population, but such is the mushrooming of houses and commercial complexes that the municipality employees are not able to reach out to every area. The issue is not limited to construction, it has led to traffic jams in the town which are becoming worse with each passing day." —Ved Prakash Gupta, chairman, Doda Municipal Committee
