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| Ensure functioning of Govt offices in Marwah: HC to Div Com Jammu | | | Asif Iqbal Naik
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 30: In a significant development with regard to non-functioning of government offices in Marwah Sub Division in Kishtwar district, the issue highlighted by "Early Times", the High Court on Tuesday directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to submit action taken report on making three tehsils of Sub Division of Marwah functional.
The direction was passed by the court's double bench comprising Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Sindhu Sharma in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by political and social activist Ghulam Rasool through Advocate Faheem Shokat Butt against the State of Jammu & Kashmir through Chief Secretary, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu and Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar.
Advocate Butt stated that the petitioner is a senior citizen and resident of far flung village Nowpachi of Tehsil Marwah, district Kishtwar, which is remotest area of the state and even today sans electricity, road connectivity and telecommunication, and after superannuated from the services as Deputy Director in Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department, the petitioner is working as social activist and working with the aim to uplift socio, economic, education and other infrastructure development of the area.
Advocate Butt stated that the petitioner is genuinely interested in this matter on behalf of the people of Sub-Division Marwah which comprises of three tehsils i.e. Marwah, Warwan and Dachhan with population of more than 50000 souls. He added that these Tehsils and Sub-Division Marwah have been created in order to provide the better administration at the doorstep.
He stated that various government offices were sanctioned for the area but they are not functioning from the area but from district headquarter at Kishtwar which is 120 Kilometer away from Marwah and the said area is situated at remotest corner of the State and is most backward area which sans the basic infrastructure i.e. road connectivity, electricity and communication and mostly remained cut off from the rest of the world for almost 6 months due to heavy snowfall. He stated that the offices of Agriculture/Horticulture, Animal Husbandry/Sheep Husbandry, Public Health Engineering Department, Hydraulic wing of PHE department and Fisheries department, CDPO Office and Zonal Education Office Marwah/ Warwan are also running from Camp Office at Kishtwar. Similarly the office of Assistant Registrar Co-Operative Society was created for the area but the same is not functional.
He stated that the people of the area apprised the Advisor to the Governor about the non-existence of government offices sanctioned for Marwah and Warwan and sought his intervention to make them functional. The Advisor took up the matter with DC Kishtwar and directed him to submit a fact finding report.
He said that acting on their direction the Deputy Commissioner vide his Order No. 567-69/DCK/Gen/2016 directed ACR Kishtwar to visit the spot and submit the report added that what happened thereafter is not known to the petitioner. He said that the residents of the area held a demonstration on May 16, 2016 before the District Development Board Meeting wherein they have registered their protest against non-functioning of offices at Marwah and Dachhan. The people of the area also sought intervention of the then Chief Minister of the state wherein they raised their grievances and requested Chief Minister for making government offices in Marwah Sub Division functional at Sub-Division Headquarter, as the same were functioning from District Headquarter which virtually make it of no use for the poor people of the one of the remotest area of the State having population of more than 50000 souls, but despite assurances nothing has been done in this regard.
The aforementioned averments are evidenced by perusing the newspaper report of Early Times dated May 15, 2016 and March 20, 2018 downloaded from the website respectively.
He further stated that time and again the misery of the people were brought to the notice of authorities at the helm of the affairs but except lame promises nothing has been done yet in order to mitigate the genuine grievances of the people of the area and thus the petitioner is constrained to invoke the jurisdiction of the court. The petitioner in this regard had already submitted a representation dated 04.02.2019 to the Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar. After hearing Advocate Butt, the High Court issued directions to Divisional Commissioner Jammu to submit the action taken report in this regard within four weeks and requisites to be furnished within one week. The court listed the case on 18-9-2019 for next hearing. |
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