Politics Is A Major Hurdle On Jammu and Kashmir’s Road To Development

The town of Tral in South Kashmir saw residents join forces to go to court about development-related matters, including better roads, improved healthcare, and educational services in the area. Not much has changed here, though. Roads have been paved in some areas, but there are several others where the rains have turned potholes into large puddles. Tral's concerns reflect people’s dismay over the lack of basic amenities across Jammu and Kashmir.

Before the revocation of Article 370, there were huge street protests in Tral. However, last year, large crowds turned out to vote in the Assembly elections. Now, residents said that the situation has not improved much in Tral. The local healthcare facilities are poor, and girls lack a separate college. A key project of a common building to house all government offices has been dragging on for several years.

Tral is not the only area where local residents are dismayed over the lack of basic amenities; elsewhere in Jammu and Kashmir, legislators have been pitted against bureaucrats as people's concerns over the slow pace of developmental works have grown.

Predictably, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators are accusing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of hiding his failures on the developmental front by pinning all the blame on the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, appointed by the Central government, while the National Conference and the Congress are blaming the LG putting a spanner in developmental projects.

Earlier this week, the row came to a head as the Aam Admi Party (AAP) MLA, Mehraj Malik, was booked by the Deputy Commissioner, Doda, under the Public Safety Act (PSA), as he had abused the DC through a social media post. While political parties remarked that the PSA was a harsh measure and action should have been taken under regular laws, AAP MP Sanjay Singh that the BJP has resorted to heavy-handed means to book the MLA who had been seeking improved healthcare services in his constituency. The PSA enables DCs to detain people without a court trial for months. Human rights bodies have decried it as a harsh measure, as the law, which was originally meant to book timber smugglers, was used to detain those facing allegations of being separatists and militants.

Malik’s detention came even as Doda town witnessed a shutdown for several days over his arrest, reigniting the demand for statehood from the ruling NC.

Ishfaq Ahmad Kar, a Tral resident and the chairman of Civil Society Tral, says that the area has faced neglect on the developmental front. “The government said that a women’s college would be constructed here, but they want to build it an area that is far off from the main town. We told officials that they should shift a horticulture nursery to the municipal dumping yard, which was earmarked for the college, and set up the educational institution in its place so that girls won't have to travel several kilometres for studies. But we don’t have a college here. Elections didn’t help; our main roads are still good, but those connecting village lanes are potholed,” Kar points out.

PDP MLA from Tral, Rafiq Ahmad Naik, says that among the developmental works, the repair of roads remains his priority. However, he says that due to the delay in the release of constituency development fund (CDF) for his assembly which received the money this July, most of the works couldn't be taken up." I have identified the works that the DC should take up, but not much has happened on the ground. The delay in release of funds certainly affected the developmental process in Tral.”

In the district of Baramulla in North Kashmir, the situation is no better. Local residents say that they lack basic amenities like a safe drinking water supply and good roads. Nazir Ahmad Rather, a resident of the Delina area of Baramulla, complains that the town is so congested that it becomes difficult for large vehicles like fire tenders to pass through the narrow roads in the residential pockets. “Authorities constructed a filtration plant in Delina, but it has not been made functional as no survey was done to build the project, and people objected to the laying of water pipes in their fields and sought compensation. We are getting contaminated water; also, the roads have not been expanded in Baramulla town.” Rather says that even mild rain leaves the streets in Baramulla town flooded due to the encroachment of the drainage network. “We thought that things would improve after the elected government was in place, but our conditions have not seen any change,” he adds.

NC’s Baramulla MLA Javed Hassan Baig says that bureaucrats were deliberately delaying the approval of developmental works, which has affected his area. “Since this is a Union Territory, IAS officers who think that they are only accountable to the LG are placing roadblocks in our work. Our projects are not getting cleared, and it is frustrating for the people,” Baig notes.

Former Minister and Congress MLA from Anantnag, Peerzada Sayeed, too, says that the delay in the approval of CDF funds this year affected the pace of developmental works. “Things got delayed, but we have identified developmental works for approval of the DC,” he points out.

This March, after over four months of Omar Abdullah assuming office, Jammu and Kashmir’s finance department issued the guidelines for the utilisation of CDF, which was enhanced from Rs three crore to Rs four crores in April for each MLA. According to the guidelines, an MLA can recommend to the DC works for the creation of “durable community assets”. The scheme envisages that the District Development Commissioner (DDC) shall prepare estimates, vet proposals technically, and accord administrative approvals within 45 days of the “receipt of recommendations” from the MLA.

However, legislators say such deadlines have not been met, and the MLAs have little control over the selection of works. Former advisor to the CM and senior NC leader Mubarak Gul says that that the situation was “so poor” in the Eidgah constituency that he had to approach the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, for even replacing a manhole cover. “The process of clearance of developmental works is frustrating. I had to even write to the Deputy Commissioner asking him to look at the possibility of approving the repair of a damaged local graveyard due to waterlogging. When I was an MLA before the revocation of Article 370, small emergency works were getting done quickly by the officials on my instructions. The process is now very cumbersome; there are a lot of delays,” he says.

Senior BJP leader Balwant Singh Mankotia says that the CM was shifting blame to the Central government, accusing it of obstructing developmental works. “There was a practice of District Development Boards (DDBs) reviewing the developmental works, but that practice has been abandoned by the CM," he notes. " The DDBs would have ensured better monitoring and speedy clearance of works. NC has not been able to deliver on key political promises like providing 200 free units of electricity to people and jobs to the youth, so they are placing the entire blame on the Central government.”