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| Village Jhulass- A victim of Govt apathy | | | Ashutosh Khanna
Poonch region of Jammu and
kashmir state is located in the
southwestern foothills of Pir Panchal Range. The total area of district poonch is 1.14 lac hectare. The projected population of 2011 AD 4,76,820. The district is comprised of four tehsils namely Haveli, Mandi, Poonch, surankote and Mendhar and six developmental blocks namely Poonch, Mandi, surankote, Bufliaz, Mendhar and Balakote. The total number of villages are 178 while there are 191 panchayats with 65000 families. The place of tourist intrests are sawjian, loran, Behramgala, and the valley of seven lakes.
The altitude of poonch region varies from 2900 feet to 15560 feet above the sea level. Tata kuti, the largest peak of Pir Panchal range which has an altitude of 15560 feet is located in poonch region. The other important peaks of poonch are Ganga choti(12013 feet), Rattan pir(8500 feet), khut Ghali(13080), Dharali pass(13460 feet), Pir Panchal pass(12600 feet), Chitta Pani Pass(14540 feet), Choti Ghali(14090 feet), chour Gali(13460 feet), Atoli Pir(8868 feet), Haji Pir(8600 feet), Neeli Dheri(7200 feet), and Neel kanth (12000 feet above the sea levels).
Situated at a distance of 8kms near actual line of control from Poonch river is village Jhulass. Its just 1 kms away from hajeera town of pok. Prior to 1947 this was the only route connecting Jammu Poonch via Mirpur and kotli. Present jammu poonch route was made functional after partition when Mirpur Kotli was captured by pakistan. The village is comprising of 7000 of population including Hindus Muslims and sikhs. Jhulass always remained worst sufferer may it be partition of 1947, the Indo-Pak war of 1965 or 1971. In truth it is a story that has happened countless time throughout history to countless people. Same is the case with Jhulass village whether its militancy or havoc caused by the nature. When the militancy was at its peak the entire population of this border village migrated to poonch on Jan 1, 2002 after when 6 hindus were massacred in village mangnar adjacent to it and took shelter in poonch town. Again on 8th october, 2005, 7.1 magnitude earthquake occured whose epicentre was Muzaffarabad which is very close to this area. Jhulass was hardest hit in terms of casualties and destruction. PHC, schools, and rescue services including police and armed forces got stuck, houses were damaged, cattles head perished, underground natural water resources skipped. There was virtually no infrastructure and communication which forced people again to leave their home and heart and migrated to poonch. The aerial distance of this village with pok town of hajeera is hardly half kms and in defence language Jhulass is known as " Crow fying Area" where a bullet can directly hit the people of both the sides. In 1988, a bullet fight from across the border had taken the life of a primary school student of P.S Dhara whose name was shoket when he was in morning assembly. During the border skirmishes the firing and shelling from the enemies always damages the houses of the villagers being located on Actual line of control. The village suffered a lot during militancy also. It remained a crossing point for the infiltrators, but the people of this area always stand by the forces through all thick and thin. Maximum youth of this area prefer to join Indian army to serve the nation.
The village is also proud of one of his son of the soil namely Jughal kishore who attained martyrdom in kargil war. Despite of all the odds and sacrifices made by the people of this village they are still the victims of government Apathy. An intellectual of this area Mr. Harish sharma talking about education says," Primary school Jhulass was established after partition later on updated to middle school and in the year 1978 elevated to the high school Jhulas. Since 1978 people of this area kept on pressing hard to upgrade it to higher secondary school, because right from salotri to village kalai a complete radius of 24 kms there is no higher secondary school. According to Rashtriya Madyamik Siksha Abhiyaan (RMSA) norms after every 7 kms there should be a higher secondary school. contrary to it in tehsil mandi there are 4 higher secondary schools within the radius of 10 kms. 75 years old khem raj says that the former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad while addressing the people in jhulas ground on 1 april 2006, promised that it would be upgraded but all in vain. A number of times this issue was raised in District Development Board meetings and the then DDB chairman Gulchain singh charak issued directions to then Chief education officer to start the classes but " a wound gets worse when it's treated with neglect". The parents of the girls stopped sending their girls for further education to far higher secondary schools which dropped literacy rate among girls. During the past floods of 2014 a patch of 100 m in salotri was damaged which made 700 canals of land barren which was producing rice the only source of livelihood for the people of that area.
The funds under MGNREGA have been diverted from village jhulass to other sides in documents. The people of this village has been promised number of times by various political parties that it will be declared as modern village but fake promises.
A scheme namely "Dara lift irregation" was damaged in floods and is not repaired which caused severe loss to the farmers and no attention has been paid by the district development authorities. we have celebrated our 70th Independence day of our nation but nothing has been changed in this village since 1947. The elders of this village are of the views that during the dogra rule this area was used for hunting "Shikargah" and the raja used to come this place for hunting. so raja also asked some families to get themselves established in this village so that it can give them logistic support to royal hunting. In order to get out of water crisis Rajas gave them "Jal aas" and provided them wells. The Imam of the masjid told that at present there is acute scarcity of water and every friday a water tank is send by the Public health engineering department from poonch. The pujari of Mahalakshmi temple of this area says to supply water a motor has been insatalled in the school premises which is working 12 days and when it gets damaged it takes months to get repaired so hand pump outside the temple is the only ray of hope for the people of this area . As a full fledged PHE department is there staff has been appointed but no supply of water.
So after 70 years of independence village jhulass is still waiting for higher secondary school, water facilities, and road connectivity so that they come up with the thought that they are living in the 21 st century not in the neo classical age..... |
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