Precious Kashmir News
Bandipora, Dec 10: Braving the biting cold and traversing few kilometres on foot to reach the polling station, Kudara villagers in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district Thursday queued up in large numbers to cast their votes during fifth phase of the District Development Council (DDC) and Panchayat by-polls in the Valley.
A 55-year-old Shams-ud-din Gojjar, who walked more than a kilometre on foot through snow-clad passes reached the polling station located at Government High School Kudara early morning to exercise his right to franchise with the hope that his village is able to see the dawn of development, which according to him has been neglected by the successive governments and representatives.
Shams said he came to vote to see development, particularly mobile network connectivity in his area as the village has no mobile connectivity, thereby making them suffer immensely.
He said in the age of technology, his village is struggling to get mobile network and for that, they have made several pleas before the concerned authorities but to no avail.
Kudara village is located on the foothills of famous Harmukh mountains and is at a distance of around 18 kilometres from district headquarters.
Shams said that the village is also struggling for even basic facilities like better roads, water supply and health care facility.
Seconding his views, a group of voters, who had queued up outside the polling station in Kudara, said that they came to vote to get better road connectivity and mobile network.
“We always fulfil our duties by casting our votes during every election-be it parliament election, assembly election or local body polls, however, we don’t get anything in return,” said Noor Jahan, who herself is a Deputy Sarpanch from Kudara village.
She said the village has no mobile network connectivity and she herself contested the last Panchayat election with the aim to get her village mobile phone connectivity, however, authorities never paid any heed to her repeated pleas.