FLASHBACK 2020|Kupwara’s year of many firsts and more

The north Kashmir’s Kupwara district witnessed ups and downs during the year 2020, witnessing events of all kind – the good, the bad and the ugly.

The authorities decided to construct 50 community bunkers in Tanghdar sector of which many have been constructed fully while the rest are under construction.

   

For the people of Machil, the dream of seeing electricity and talking on mobile phones finally came true when a mini-power project was inaugurated this year. The jubilation of people was worth watching when a private telecom company inaugurated its towers here and people could be seen talking on mobile phones with their kith and kin.

The Education department in Kupwara topped entire Jammu and Kashmir while enrolling 27,000 new students in different government-run schools.

For the first time, authorities started chopper service for the isolated and snowbound areas of Kupwara.

Now passengers, every Monday, can avail the service from Kupwara by paying Rs 1500 per person. Karnah, Machil, Keran and Budnamal areas of the frontier district remain cut off from the district headquarters during the winter months due to snowfall.

For the first time, female soldiers were deployed on the Sadhna Top of Tanghdar to keep a watch on suspects and to plug the entry of narcotics and ammunition close to the forward areas.

Kupwara witnessed a sharp rise in COVID19 cases following which entire district along with other districts in Kashmir went for lockdown for months at a stretch. The north Kashmir district witnessed 90 deaths to COVID19 while 5530 persons tests positive for the novel coronavirus.

In almost 20 incidents of violence in the frontier district, five civilians, nine militants, 12 Army men and a BSF man were killed while nine civilians and two forces personnel were injured along the Line of Control in Tanghdar, Machil, Keran and Nowgam sectors. Troops also shot down a quadcopter close to the LoC.

In June, Police in Handwara busted a narcotics module and arrested three persons from whose possession 21 kg of Heroin worth Rs 1000 crore was recovered besides Rs 1.34 crore cash. Later the case was taken over by the National Investigation Agency.

The Government Medical College (GMC) Handwara that was sanctioned by the Medical Council of India in December 2019 did not see any construction although 300 kanalland have been demarcated by the Revenue department.

DDC elections were conducted smoothly in Kupwara. However, the SEC halted counting of votes for Drugmulla constituency citing reasons of wrong information furnished by a female contestant, SoomiaSadaf, a PaK national married to a Kashmiri.

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