On the Magam-Gulmarg road, a right-turn at Dobiwan and a drive of almost two kilometres leads to an arch-shaped billboard calling village Lolpura as a “model village.” Lolpura which earned the recognition of a model village six years back during the PDP-BJP government was among several villages in Kunzar constituency that went to polls in the second phase of the District Development Council (DDC) polls on Tuesday.
Lolpura has a considerable Pandit population. Voting here picked up as early as 7 am. Voters who started visiting the polling station housed in a government higher secondary school braved the early morning chill and foggy conditions.
Both men and women voters had queued up at this polling station which as per officials has 4700 total votes. However, soon the centre of attraction was Jana Begum, in her 80s, hand-held by her artiste son Fayaz Ahmad Bhat for casting her vote.
With a hunch due to old age, Jana who could barely stand upright said: “I voted because one of the candidates is just like my son”. Mother of two sons and two daughters, Jana was accompanied by her speech-impaired sister and other womenfolk of the larger family to the polling station. However, while these voters said they were contend with the “deep-rooted social fabric of the village” and the way the “Muslims and Pandits lived in harmony”, they rued lack of development in the area. Jana’s son Fayaz, who sings and dances during weddings and is also a stage performer, while scrolling his smartphone to show some of his latest performances, says a large number of people involved in “band pather” or the traditional folk theatre of Lolpur have been neglected.
“Ours is a village which is a pluralistic society. We had members of the band-e-pather community and even Kashmiri pandits who still reside here. The misery is that the government over the years although called us a model village but failed to give the much needed recognition,” says Bhat.
Ratan Lal Bhan, a local resident told the Greater Kashmir that his entire family of seven members voted on Tuesday as “it was their fundamental duty”. “We have a water body here which holds religious significance for us which has been neglected completely. The cremation ground nearby is also in a pathetic state which needs to be looked after by the concerned authorities. My mother passed away recently and we had a taxing time performing her cremation as the ground is in a bad shape,” Bhan said.
Manzoor Ahmad Shah, a voter said it was the long pending demands for which people of Lalpora had come out to vote in large numbers. “This government higher secondary school where we are standing has still many unfinished civil works. So is the construction of a local government healthcare facility. Not everyone has a personal vehicle. People who don’t have are forced to walk or rent a vehicle to go 5 kilometers till Magam or Kunzer for healthcare issues,” said Shah.
Voters, both young and elderly who walked in and out of the polling station the whole day kept pointing at the arch shaped billboard outside saying “hope this title of model village not just remains on papers”.