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| Nowshera deserves district status more than Shopian | | Oppression will boomerang | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 30: Situation in Nowshera, border tehsil of Jammu province, is deteriorating with each passing day. The people there in one voice are demanding district status for Nowshera-Sunderbani-Kalakote area, saying "they would have got district status as early as in 1967 during the time of GM Sadiq, had certain vested interests in Rajouri not played a dirty role to harm the people "Nowshera-Sunderbani-Kalakot areas".
There are more than 930 shops in the Nowshera town. Not one shop was opened during the past 43 days. Such is the nature of unity among the agitating people. The offices also remained closed for "37 days".
The PDP-BJP Government should have felt the pulse of the people and granted the areas district status to ease the situation and mollify the agitating people. But it was not to be. The authorities took recourse to the divide and rule policy to scuttle the age-old demand of the people of Nowshera. Its decision to announce separate ADCs for the three sub-divisions of Nowshera, Kalakot and Sunderbani did satisfy the people of Sunderbani and Kalakot but not of Nowshera. And the result was that they continued their agitation with a renewed zeal making it loud and clear that "they would take rest only after their demand was conceded and Nowshera granted district status".
In the meantime, the police used strong methods to kill the agitation. So much so, they "entered a temple" and "even hospital to target the innocents". Their strong and provocative methods led to the injuries of at least 35 people, including 5 policemen. One young Sikh boy Jaswinder Singh lost his eye. Almost a dozen women suffered injuries on March 24, when certain policemen entered the temple and used what the local people called "expired teargas shells?
But the policy of repression has not deterred the people of Nowshera. Reports from the area clearly suggest that things could go out of hand if timely action was not taken. Interestingly, important BJP functionaries in Nowshera have started quitting the BJP. Babu Gumbal, Nowshera District President, Mahila Morcha, has already resigned protesting against what she called the "oppressive policies of the state government and failure of the BJP to protect the cause of the people of Nowshera". "Nowshera first, BJP afterwards", she said. According to one report, "many persons may quit the BJP and the Sangh Parivar if the BJP continued to play foul game with the people of Nowshera".
The demand of the people of Nowshera demanding district status is rational and genuine. If Shopian tehsil with 312 sq km in Kashmir could be declared a district, why can't Nowshera with 1,352 sq km area? This is the argument of the agitating people of Nowshera and this argument just can't be brushed aside and dismissed as something silly and preposterous. |
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