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| In both year of republic , Gurez still awaits electricity | | | Early Times Report
Gurez, Line of Control (LoC), Jan 27 : At the time when people in the entire country and abroad were witnessing the Republic Day function parade live on their television sets yesterday, residents of this border town in north Kashmir had to satisfy themselves by turning into the running commentary on their radio sets.
Majority of people living in the villages adjacent to the LoC do not have electricity and are using 'mashal' (wood) in the evenings for doing their work, said Ghulam Mohammad Khan, who was listening to the live commentary of R-Day parade in the national capital.
''We are getting electricity for just four to five hours in the evening and few hours in the morning from diesel generators,'' Mr Khan said.
Mr Khan said majority of people living in the village near border area do not even have the radio as they find it difficult to purchase batteries.
Due to cold weather the batteries for radio sets gets discharged early, he said, adding that some people listen to only news on radio.
There are hundreds of far-flung and remote villages in the Kashmir Valley which are not in the reach of electricity even after more than six decades after Independence says Nazir Ahmad Khan alias Gurezi, who represented the border constituency in the Assembly for the second term, told UNI.
He said prominent among these villages was Tulail, which remained cut off from the rest of the state for six winter months due to heavy snowfall.
Mr Gurezi said some people in Tulail were using kerosene oil lamps while others burn mashal to light their homes. But when there is no kerosene oil because of closure of the Gurez-Tulail road, almost all the people use 'mashal' in the evening.
It is very difficult to come down from the snow-bound Tulail to Gurez and go back with the kerosene oil, said Mohammad Ismail, a local shopkeeper.
He said there is no diesel generator in Tulail as has been installed at different places in Gurez town, which is surrounded by Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) from the three sides.
The road to Tulail has been closed since December last year and people are being airlifted in helicopters from the cut off areas.
He said Neeru and Haathi Gali, which connects Tulail with Drass, people have not even seen how the bulb look like. Some elderly persons have not seen any vehicles as the villages have no roads.
But surprisingly people still have faith in democracy and participated in all elections.
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