Khan Aatif Abdullah
Government can’t do anything as the rice field depend on drip irrigation so when there is no rain the only source which replenishes the treasure of water , and the surface run off is no where. The water level would had got balanced accordingly, if equal amount flows out and equal amount enters the
tank. Which is not possible in case of droughts and our lolab is suffering from such an erratic drought
season , if the waters had been diverted at bonnard over the top between bandipora and lolab .
Government was talking since years together about the said project and had promised at floor of the
house that they will transform fate of the lolab . Coalition Government was lacking proper plan of
action and even funds were not released so for. Government was also talking about the tunnel at
diver Andarbugh and as per the geologists survey there were to be maintained two tubes meant for
traffic and another tube for water procurement that project did not got attention either from cental
Government or erstwhile state Government of J&K hence the dreams turned into illusion.
It is very unfortunate that due attention is not still given to lolab which is landlocked between hills
covered with lush green deodars and surrounded on all sides by Bandipora, Sopore, POK, kandi
kupwara etc. If tunnels are provided to lolab at diver and dorusa it will get connected at a time with
Bandipora and sopore. I have myself travelled to the destination connecting sopore and lolab. It won’t
cost much in relation with creating road infrastructure Jk forest department must be taken on board
as trees need to be chopped and won’t incur heavy loss to environment which is incured by
forest fires .The concerned department has to provide compensation to forest department for
which District Development commissioners of the concerned districts have a pivotal role as they are
working in different capacities one of those roles is coordinator and the concerned wings need to be
brought on a single table.Economic activities will get boosted and people of three districts kupwara,
Bandipora, baramulla will exchange the products and tourists will get an easy access to lolab via these
passes.Since times immemorial people used to cross in each other’s regions through these passes for
example between bandipora and lolab there is still the pass called TRUMAKH, where we have Army
installation located at present and people easily move in each other’s regions either on foot or on
horses back ,between Sopore and lolab we have KANIGUD pass and in the mid way comes a village
located at top called YEMBARZALWARI the beautiful village in revenue records of Baramulla. It takes
only one hour on foot to reach this village from wani dorusa and we have another village located at
the top called MUNGLU as well which lies near to Diver lolab and takes 30 minutes time to reach into
this village .
Government should give it’s attention ⚠ to help the people of all these regions to get connected via
wheel .
South lolab is facing water scarcity in relation with irrigation for rice fields and for drinking purposes ,
government can also plan to lift water from Wullar lake by utilising services of modern machines to
augment the need of the people.
Lolab was brought on tourism map very recently by creating Lolab, Drangyari and bangus
Development Authority. The said authority could install cable car from diver to Nagmarg and will help
to generate handsome income for the UT Of J&K . It will also help to generate income for BPL families,
punny wallas, and will generate per capita income contributing towards GDP of the UT.
We hope Government will look into the suggestions and will boost the economy of the UT in best
possible manner.
Author is a research Scholar in public Administration and Government teacher can be mailed at
aatifabdullahkhan@gmail.com
