Bandipora, Mar 26: Zurimanz villagers in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district have been awaiting the construction of a New-Type Primary Health Centre (NTPHC) for eight years now due to prolonged delays in execution.
The village, inhabited by the fishermen’s community, is disappointed over the delay with no one bothering to listen to their genuine pleas. They blame the executing agency Housing Board, which began the construction of the project in 2016, for its apathetic approach towards the community.
The project, they said, was taken up after demolishing an old and dilapidated building that served as a sub-center for the villagers but ever since the project was taken up the “work faced long delays due to funding issues.”
Bashir Ahmad a local fisherman said, “After the executing agency erected a concrete structure, the work has been abandoned for years.”
The villagers lamented that a run-down one-room building which currently serves as the NTPHC, barely qualifies as a sub-center due to the lack of doctors and basic medical equipment and space.
With villagers being “annoyed over the persistent delay” and unable to receive “quality healthcare facility nearby” the locals said they expressed to Deputy Commissioner Bandipora the urgency of completion of NTPHC.
“We went with high hopes when we were called to the office regarding issues of our village,” a local Farooq Ahamd Dar said. He added in the meeting, “Completion of the health center was our top priority.”
Dar said the Deputy Commissioner assured them that work would resume soon by his intervention “for which we are filled with gratitude.” However, despite these measures taken months ago, “no contractor has shown up to resume the construction”, Dar accompanied by other villagers said.
Some villagers were in doubt if new tenders were furnished for R&B to take up further work. However, the executive engineer of R&B, Bandipora, Asadullah Najjar denied they were involved in the project.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Bandipora, Dr Rafi Ahmad Salati, also confirmed the project was still being executed by the Housing Board suggesting that there was new development about the release of funds which, the locals said, is the main cause of the delay.
“More funds were released recently and we anticipate work will be taken up by the executing agency,” he told Greater Kashmir.
Notably, the building hasn’t yet been handed over to the department as there is a huge portion of internal and external work pending on the part of the executing agency. “We believe funds will be released at regular intervals for the next batch of pending works, and that the work is complete soon,” the CMO said.