Budgam, Jan 29: The residents of Bugam-Batpora in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district have alleged that the road connecting their village with Chadoora and Wathoora has not been repaired from the last more than 15 years.
 The residents said that people were facing immense hardships due to the dilapidated road, particularly during the winter and rains.
 “Our village has been totally neglected in spite of the fact that it is known for vegetable cultivation, not only in Budgam district, but across whole state. We have a road which connects our village with Chadoora and Wathoora, but the R&B authorities have not undertaken its repairs since last more than 15 years. People of the area are suffering immensely as some of the local transporters have stopped plying their vehicles on the road following extensive damage caused to them due to dilapidated communication link. These transporters had incurred losses as they had to spend huge amount of money to maintain their vehicles,” a local Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat told Greater Kashmir.
 The government’s claim that it has macadamized most of the roads in Jammu and Kashmir during 2011 proves a damp squib here. “We fail to understand why no such work was undertaken in Bugam-Batpora village in spite of the fact that we are the tax payers to the government. Our area generates crores of rupees revenue for the government as people of the area export vegetables to many parts of J&K and other north states. The truck operators who take vegetables from our farms pay taxes to the government. But, we get step motherly treatment with reference to the repair of roads.  This is a matter of concern for us,” he added.
Xen R&B speaks  “We did some repair work in few Mohallas of Bugam-Batpora last summer and a proposal has already been sent to NABARD which has not been cleared yet. Once we will get a go ahead, we will take up further work on Bugam-Batpora road,” Executive Engineer R&B division, Nazir Ahmad Tak told Greater Kashmir.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST