Ganderbal: A few kilometers from the Srinagar-Leh National Highway, Gichkhud village in Hariganiwan area of Kangan subdivision of Ganderbal district is without basic facilities including road, electricity, health, and other facilities, causing immense hardships to the inhabitants.
In absence of the road connectivity, the inhabitants of village Gichkhud, situated in the upper reaches of Kangan, are forced to walk 10 km by foot to reach the national highway.
“There is no road to our village. We have to walk several kilometers to Hariganiwan for everything. People are forced to bring essentials on shoulders from the main highway up to their homes,” locals said.
A local, Muhammad Yusuf said that the ailing patients and expecting mothers are taken to Hariganiwan on stretchers.
“Even students have to walk up several kilometers,” said a local Muhammad Yousuf. “On many occasions, officials assured us that the construction of the road will be taken up but till date nothing has been done practically.”
Locals said that their village was without proper electricity infrastructure and so far the government had made no effort to upgrade the power supply and infrastructure of the village.
“We don’t have a proper drinking water facility in our village. Womenfolk have to fetch water while carrying utensils on shoulders from miles,” they said. “The contaminated water has become the cause of many diseases in the village.”
Locals said that at a time when all the villages were being connected to main roads, they had been left to suffer in absence of road connectivity.
“We have to walk miles to reach any road,” they said. “And, we have to fetch essentials on our backs.”
They said that the long-pending demand of the approach road under the PMGSY scheme was approved a few years back which brought cheers to the inhabitants but the road had not been completed even after the passage of over five years now.
The people in the village are living a miserable life.
They said many residents of the village with medical emergencies had died so far.
“Most of them were pregnant women who could not reach the hospital on time,” locals said.
The absence of an approach road has also affected other developmental works and education of the students of the village.
The people suffer the most during the winter as it is difficult to move on snowbound hills to get essential commodities from the market 10 km downhill. The residents urged the administration particularly Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal to look into their grievances for an early redress.