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Jammu as it is!
Jammu Region The Story of Neglect Jammu and Kashmir joined the Indian Union on October 26, 1947. Ever since, then, the people of Jammu province, Hindus and Muslims included, have been suffering immense losses in spheres political or otherwise owing to the discriminatory policies being pursued ruthlessly by the Kashmir-centric authorities. It can be said without any hesitation that the life of the people of Jammu is highly pathetic. Their complaints are umpteen and appear justifiable when viewed in the light of the official statistics themselves, leave alone their complaint that they have also been ignored in matters relating to governance or very crucial political and democratic processes.
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onscious of the space limit, I will focus only on sever issues to make the point that Jammu province is indeed a victim of gross discrimination and these include poor road connectivity, inadequate power generation, small number of administrative units, acute unemployment, glaring disparity in wages, wrong admission policy and invidious distinction between Kashmir and Jammu as far as allotment of funds are concerned.
Poor Road Connectivity
PROF. HARI OM Author is Maharaja Gulab Singh Chair Professor at the University of Jammu (omhari09@yahoo.in)
It is hardly necessary to point out that roads are the lifeline of any region. The figures as contained in the Report of the Task Force on development of Jammu and Kashmir show the extent to which the State Government has ignored Jammu in this very important sphere. This Task Force was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006. According to it, the total road length in Kashmir, which has an area of less than 16,000 sq kms, was 7129 kilometers in 2006. Contrast to this, the road length in Jammu with an area almost two times more that of Kashmir
Epilogue Ă˜ 20 Ă— October 2009
was 4571 kilometers. This shows that the road density km / sq km in Kashmir and Jammu was 310.4 and 138.7, respectively. That most of the towns and villages in the Jammu's mountainous and hilly areas continue to remain inaccessible even today is a sad reflection on the ruling elite. The report of the Task Force shows that the erstwhile Doda district in Jammu province, which had a land area of 11,691 sq km, had road length of 613 km. This means that per sq km road density in the erstwhile Doda district, which witnesses road accidents every other day, was a paltry 5.2 km. In Poonch district, the per sq km road density was 13 km as it had a land area of 1,674 sq km and road length of 217 km. As far as the erstwhile Udhampur district was concerned, the per sq km road density in this district was 15.8 km as it had an area of 4,550 sq km and a road length of 719 km. In Rajouri district, the per sq km road density was 19.4 km. This district had a land area of 2,630 sq km and road length of 511 km. As for Kathua district, it was 29.5 km. Kathua had an area of 2,651 sq km and road length of 782 km. The erstwhile