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Azad, Omar and uneven development of Bhadrwah
Ignoring Machail Mata
10/23/2011 12:00:05 AM
Neha
JAMMU, Oct 22: Union Health Minister and former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was not indulging in mere political demagoguery when he blamed the Omar Abdullah-led government for slow pace of developmental works in Bhaderwah and other parts of the erstwhile Doda district, which he intriguingly chose to refer as "Chenab region", which is non-existent. (Has he been influenced by Dixon plan/Farooq Kathwari/Musharaf formula?) He was simply stating a hard reality. Major developmental schemes initiated by his government are merely a few months away from completion if work is allowed to go on a normal pace in the area. For example, the road connecting the area with Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh is almost complete on the Himachal side and work is going on a snail's pace on the Bhadrwah side. This connectivity will break the isolation of Bhadrwah and bring it close to the sister state, which also sees this connectivity as a flip to its own tourism potential and economic development. The slow pace in the completion of the stretch of this road on the Bhadrwah tells its own sordid political story. It is no secret that ideologues of "Greater Kashmir" have never been happy with the construction of this road.
Blocking the developmental schemes to boost tourism to Bhadrwah has taken a subtler form. For example when one enters the beautiful tourist complex build by Bhadrwah Development Authority just near the entry point into Bhadrwah city one is impressed by the quality and aesthetic presentation of the whole complex area. One can hire a room meticulously decorated and furnished. One can stay there but there is no arrangement for food in the complex. The concerned officials have "standing instructions from the higher ups not to provide kitchen facilities beyond the warming of water". This reporter was wonderstruck when the entire family of a Jain businessman chose to vacate the place and instead move to Kashmir Valley only because there was no arrangement for eating in the Tourist Complex. They had found no decent restaurant or a Dhaba in the entire city.
This is really amazing that at a place where four major picnic spots have come up during Azad's time there is almost absence of food points in the entire city. Nalty, Khilanni, Jay valley and Ghatta are picnic spots with a beautiful landscape and can be compared with the best in the state. The quality of developmental work in these places undertaken during Azad's tenure is of high standards. Just examining the garden chairs and lights in these spots give you an impression that those who wanted to develop the area had aesthetics, durability and quality in their mind than merely minting money. The guest houses built in Ghatta with woodwork of precision can be compared with the best in the state. Igloo Huts and tree houses are new ideas put into practice at least in this region. Absence of food points doesn't tell you the story of absence of tourists but reveals a mindset which wants to block the entry of tourists through indirect discouragements.
We asked locals why parking slots are not functional. We were told that the "government, instead of taking out tenders or doing proper auctions for these slots and guest houses, have fixed exorbitant annual rates which nobody can pay". The Government wants to earn lakhs of rupees as annual rent for the parking place at Ghatta when there are no tourists. Through crafting unreasonable policies, apparently to give government revenue, the authorities are, it appears, discouraging tourists to visit the area.
But this is not the whole story. Lack of local enterprise to promote tourism is also visible. Anybody entering into the Bhadrwah city will mark unusually high number of mutton and chicken shops but no restaurants or dhabas. At a place where even in the dense forests in the upper reaches one would rarely see a house which is not pucca or doesn't have a tinned roof, or is not properly painted, one is also confronted with the lack of appetite for enterprise in the locals to see Bhadrwah emerge on the tourist map of the state. The area is supposed to have the highest literacy rate in the state with also one of the highest ratio of government employees. The urge at folk level to do tourist business is not commensurate with the tourist potential of the area.
The difference in the local enterprise is in stark contrast to the people living in same the region along the pilgrimage route to Machail Mata. It is said that this year more than a lakh of pilgrims undertook the Yatra to Machail Mata. Locals in the region are sure that in a few years' time the Yatra will assume a dimension of half a million pilgrim tourists. The villages along the route have no road connectivity, have no electricity and are actually the poorest areas of the state. While in Bhadrwah one will not see a house which is not three storied, in the area from Gulabgarh to Machail one would rarely see a double storied house. How the people of this area crafted the Machail yatra is in itself a saga of enterprise of people abandoned by the state and the nation. This enterprise till the moment is lacking in Bhadrwah. The people of Bhadrwah and along Machail yatra route can have a joint strategy to approach each other to see that more people visit there region. They can have a voluntary tourist development movement where travel agents in various parts of the state and adjoining states are approached and educated about the tourist potential of a breathtakingly beautiful area. Politics of the times may want to divide them on communal lines but possibility of a bright future can unite them. Azad at the moment is a symbol of development in the area. But Azad has to look at the area as a whole and push the people into a culture of enterprise and mutual cooperation for a sustainable development.
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