2023 does not merit to be remembered as a good year gone by. In 2023, the world witnessed the horror of the Israel-Hamas war which continues unabated with the news from that most unfortunate piece of land on earth, Gaza, about everyday deaths of children and young and old. In this gory drama of death and destruction, Israel’s arrogance and American acquiescence will stay as a dark chapter in history. Such is the helplessness of rest of the world that even great powers like Russia and China appear to be as powerless as the UNO which now presents itself nothing more than a fledgling Red Cross entity notwithstanding its extremely laudable intentions and that of its Secretary General who is a good man himself. We can only pray that 2024 marks the end at the earliest of this hugely one sided war.
For us in Jammu and Kashmir it will be of no use to reflect on what went wrong for us in 2023, it is however time to think what we can do right for ourselves in 2024.
Half of the ongoing winter is over and there is not a trace of snow and rain, either in Kashmir or in Jammu region. So, we may not have enough water in our rivers next summer due to unreplenished glaciers. Come to think of it, our glaciers are depleting fast and some of these have actually either disappeared or reduced to a fraction over the last three to four decades. J&K’s most well known glacier researcher and expert Dr Shakil A. Romsho, the present VC of IUST, Awantipore, and his colleague researchers have been warning about rapid melting of glaciers due to global warming but warnings have generally passed by, sadly.
About twenty five years back when I was Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, I was briefing the then CM Dr. Farooq Abdullah during one of his visits to Srinagar in winter when darbar was in Jammu, about possible drought coming summer in view of lack of snow that winter. He said that now our agriculture in Kashmir has come to depend more on rains during April-June than snow in winter which (snow) in any case is nothing like what we would get in his or my childhood. He was right because out of three winters that I spent as Divisional Commissioner in my first tenure, we experienced drought only in 1999 and that was mainly due to rainless April-June 1999. So, we should pray and wish for rains coming spring and summer 2024 in view of no snow this winter so far.
We are also observing that our political leaders are demanding elections which the SC has already ordered with an outer date, September 2024, but are not making similar clamour for statehood. Statehood has been promised at the highest level and reiterated before the SC and therefore it makes eminent sense demanding it. They should demand elections preceded by statehood because that is what will assuage to some extent the hurt feelings of much of the population in J&K and cheer them up as they have not voted for their assembly representatives for more than nine years now, an unenviable record. Elections without statehood will get fewer hearts in the proceedings.
2024 will see the long talked about direct train from Delhi to Srinagar chug across the highest rail bridge over Chenab at Bakkal-Kauri and then through the once treacherous but now softened up Ramban-Banihal hill terrain and into the valley. We wish and hope this train becomes a popular and easy mode of transport for freight, travellers and tourists and brings in prosperity and bounties for all the people.
We also wish 2024 become the harbinger of much change in Jammu and Kashmir, apart from positive political change. We need to solve the problems of drug trafficking and addiction, solid waste, plastic, air pollution and traffic on our roads. Whereas Jammu and Srinagar cities have got benefitted by the smart city projects, the towns are in bad shape with no good plans for land use and future expansion. Towns need special attention and urgently. The government also needs to take more care of water bodies and wetlands. Conversion of agriculture land and vandalisation of Karewas and Nallahs needs to be stopped. Forests need to be protected and regrown. The UT government must do an honest audit of its environmental policies and cut out expediency in facilitating development because nobody in Jammu and Kashmir would want development at the cost of its natural resources, environment, ecology and above all its natural beauty.
In my last article on circular economy and its suitability for Jammu and Kashmir in Greater Kashmir on 28th December, I suggested that UT government make actionable plans to implement LIFE (life style for environment) which is one of India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as per its COP 26 commitment at Glasgow in 2021 and the PM’s nine resolutions (sankalp) and as many requests (aagraha) made to the people at Varanasi on 18th December,2023, while inaugurating Swarved Mahamandir. If an honest effort is made to implement these, many of our problems of poor sanitation and cleanliness, solid waste and environmental degradation will get sorted out. But this requires a strong will and willingness to tread the difficult path, both for the government as well as for the people. Let this be a resolution for 2024.
Tail piece: It is not wrong to dream big, but it is wrong to dream big without a plan to transform dreams into reality. J&K government will need to make hard choices to put the erstwhile state on the path of sustainable economic growth and development. Short cuts and expediency will not succeed.
Khurshid Ahmed Ganai is a retired IAS officer of erstwhile J&K cadre and former Advisor to the Governor, J&K.