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| Kashmir already over-developed, Delhi needs to focus attention on marginalized Jammu | | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sep 2: The custodians of the Indian State have not only consistently appeased the Kashmiri leaders and their supporters overlooking the national sentiment, but they have also all through given the Kashmiri leadership extraordinary power to maltreat the people of Jammu province and discriminate against them at all levels and in all spheres. It's no wonder then that the people of Jammu province are crying for justice.
The complaints of the people of Jammu are innumerable. Their age-old complaint is that they do not have due representation in the state legislature that decides questions of supreme importance to the well-being and happiness to the people. They have just 37 legislators in the assembly, as against 46 from Kashmir, despite the fact that Jammu province is superior to Kashmir in terms of land area and voters' strength. The geographical area of Jammu is almost two times more that of Kashmir. Besides, the nature of terrain in Jammu province is highly treacherous and difficult. Their age-old complaint is that they are poorly represented in the civil secretariat (seat of power), as also in the vital service sector. The share of Jammu province in the civil secretariat is not more 25 per cent. As for their share in services in other departments, government and semi-government, it is not more than 33 per cent. The number of Kashmiri employees is nearly 3.5 lakh, as against nearly one lakh employees from Jammu province. While the employees hailing from Jammu are conspicuous by their absence in Kashmir, employees hailing from Kashmir occupy thousands of positions in the government and semi-government establishments located in Jammu province. It's no wonder that the unemployment rate in Jammu province is over 69 per cent, as against less than 30 per cent in Kashmir.
Another complaint of the people of Jammu province is that they are far behind the people of Kashmir as far as road connectivity, power generation, tourism development and irrigation facilities are concerned. In 2006, the total road length in Kashmir, which has a land area of less than 16,000 sq km, was 7,129 kilometers, as against 4,571 kilometers in Jammu having a land area of nearly 27,000 sq km. In other words, the road density Km/sq km in Jammu was 138.7 and in Kashmir it was 310.4 (more than double). It needs to be noted that most of the towns and villages in the Jammu province are inaccessible because of the nature of terrain.
Similarly, while the state owned power projects in Kashmir generate as many as 335.36 MW of electricity, the installed capacity of state owned power project (Chenani Hydel Project) in Jammu province is a paltry 25 MW. This glaring disparity is due to the allocation of more funds to Kashmir as compared to Jammu. For example, during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plans, Kashmir got Rs 1,731,43 and 4,915.17 crores, respectively, for power generation. Contrast to this, Jammu, during the said Five-Year Plans, got Rs 1,154 and Rs 3,278.78 crores, respectively.
As for tourism, over 80 per cent of the tourism budget goes to Kashmir where all the tourist spots are already over-developed. The number of tourists who visit Kashmir each year ranges between 3 and 4 lakh. As far as Jammu is concerned which is visited by about 10 million tourists every year, the state government has nothing in its kitty to offer to Jammu so that it is also developed on the Kashmir pattern. Jammu, if not superior to Kashmir in terms of scenic beauty, is also not that inferior. In fact, the mountainous areas of Jammu province are as salubrious, beautiful and thrilling as those in Kashmir. It needs to be noted that during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plans, while Kashmir got Rs 109.85 crore and 83.09 crore, respectively, Jammu got Rs 47.17 crore and 36.29 crore, respectively.
One of the archaic demands of the agrarian community in the Jammu province, where an overwhelming majority of the people depends on agriculture for two-time meal and meeting other financial needs, is that the state government has not done anything substantial to meet its irrigational needs. The bulk of geographical area of this province is hilly and mountainous and the small and marginal consistently suffer losses due to bad harvest owing to the paucity of irrigation facilities. Even the situation in the plain areas like RS Pura, Bishnah and Marh is bad. On the contrary, the agrarian community in Kashmir has never ever complained that they had at any point of time during all these 63 years suffered owing to lack of inadequate irrigation facilities. Kashmir, unlike Jammu, has a highly developed canal system. And, yet, the state government earmarks more funds for irrigation development in Kashmir. For instance, during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plans, while Kashmir got Rs 446.72 crore and Rs 365.35 crore, respectively, Jammu got Rs 267.76 crore and Rs 282.54 crore. Respectively. (To be continued) |
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