Residents of Syed Abad, Soiteng here Monday complained to the officials who visited the area under phase-3 Back to Village programme that the demands they had raised in earlier phases of the programme had not been met.
Interestingly, the residents didn’t raise any fresh demand and instead reminded the officials of the grievances put forth by them in the earlier phases of the programme.
The first phase of B2V was conducted from June 20 to June 27, 2019 and the second from November 25 to November 30, 2019. The third phase of the public outreach programme was started on Friday.
The locals said that they gave warm welcome to visiting teams of B2V-3 but raised demands which had been left unaddressed though raised in the earlier phases of the programme.
Ghulam Hassan Bhat, a local said that the visiting teams during previous phases had assured them redressal of their grievances on priority. “We had demanded construction of drainage system, retaining wall from Ziyarat Sharief to SAMM School, a park near local Jamia Masjid,” Bhat said.
He said that their demands also included a footbridge over river Jhelum, a veterinary facility, and a primarily health centre for the area. “Not a single demand has been fulfilled so far,” he said.
Ishfaq Ahmad Magrey, a local said that the demand of two PDD transformers was raised earlier. “They were installed but not connected with the HT Line,” he said.
Locals asked the official teams that the construction of Soiteng Vethpora-Athwajan bridge was incomplete for last ten years.
An official said that first phase-I of the B2V was an introductory and interactive programme to understand the people’s grievances and demands. “The phase-II focused on the devolution of powers to Panchayats and tried to understand how these Panchayats are functioning and what are their grievances and demands.”
The Phase-III, he said, has been designed on the format for grievance redressal.