Nearly two decades into the 21st Century, two villages in border area of Keran in the frontier district Kupwara are without electricity, residents say.
They say successive governments have ignored theirconsistent pleas. Among the residents of the two villages students suffer moreacutely.
Ishtiyaq Ahmad of Dhani village said he recently shifted toKupwara town miles away from home to be able to continue his studies.
“My studies are suffering as we have to use the oldtraditional ways of lighting our homes after dark falls,” Ahamad said, addinghis village receives just three hours of electricity supplky a day from agenerator set in two shifts. Residents are forced to live a primitive lifestylewithout electricity supply in the modern digital age.
“We still use wood, candles and lanterns to do householdwork,” said Naseer Ahmad, another resident of Dhani.
The villagers say that the administration promised last yearthat electricity would be provided to the area in December, but it has notarrived.
“We felt relief when the work was going on for transmissionlines but after first snowfall they halted the work which is yet to berestarted,” Naseer added.
The villagers also rue absence of mobile phone andmacadamised road connectivity.
“Even the road connecting us is also in a shambles. We’rebeing neglected since decades for every kind of basic development,” Naseeralleged.
Superintendent Engineer Kupwara, Mohammad Shafi, said thatdue to early snowing last year work came to halt.
“It has been restarted and we will complete it ending Junethis year,” Shafi said.