Budgam, Feb 6: The inhabitants of Alamdar Colony Gopalpora in Chadoora block of Central Kashmir's Budgam district have urged the government to include their area in master plan and register it in Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
 "As many as 400 households are putting up in the Colony and most of the residents belong to various parts of Srinagar and its adjoining areas. The Colony has a population of around 2500 people. The problem with it is that it is not registered and doesn't include in Master Plan as it is not falling under the jurisdiction of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC)," the inhabitants of the area told Greater Kashmir.
 According to them, the developmental works in the area are to be executed by Rural Development Department, but due to non-availability of land and alleged indifference of concerned officials, these works especially under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are not being executed.
 “We have three Panchayat wards in Alamdar Colony and three Panchs were elected few months back. There are funds available under NREGA with Rural Development Department, but there is no land to execute the schemes. We don’t know what to do," Arshad Ahmad one of the Panch of the area told Greater Kashmir.

GARBAGE HEAPS LYING ON ROADS
 Majority of the residents throw garbage on the roadside as there is no dustbin available in the area. "The garbage colleting van doesn't come to the area as it is not in the jurisdiction of SMC," the concerned residents said, adding that heaps of garbage could be seen on the roadside which emanates foul smell making the pedestrian movement immensely difficult. “During summers there is every possibility of disease outbreak.”
 The Rural Development department has also failed to take measures to remove garbage from the roads, they added.
 "If our area is clubbed with Srinagar Municipality Corporation, we might get some relief from the garbage problem," the residents added.
 The residents also complained about the absence of street lights in the area saying that the people, especially, elder men, women and children were facing tremendous hardships while walking during the evening hours.
 According to them, most of the families are still without ration cards as a result of which they have to buy the essential commodities from the open market at exorbitant prices.
 Alamdar Colony has been established on State Land also called (Khalsa Sarkar). “But till date the land has no been transferred to the owners under Roshni Act.” “People living in this colony own one to three kanals of land and some own just few marlas, but we fail to understand as to why doesn't the government transfer the land to the owners under the Roshni Act," the residents said, adding if government can transfer hundreds and thousands of kanals of state land to many top business groups of under the Roshni Act, why can't it expedite the transfer process with respect to the people residing in the Colony.
 When contacted Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD) Budgam, Qazi Sarwar said some minor works could be executed under NREGA in the area, but there was no provision of undertaking other works like installing street lights, dust bins , clearing garbage dumps  etc by the Rural Development Department.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST