Lack of road connectivity costs education to girls

Srinagar, Oct 12: (GNS) Albeit state and central government’s huge pay out in building better road connectivity across state, believe it or not, the Mankal village in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district is still without roads. The village lies about 25 kilometers away from Handwara area of North Kashmir.

Manzoor Gujri, a local from this small hamlet told GNS that our area is like a primitive one which doesn’t have even roads. “Don’t we deserve all the basic facilities like other areas of the valley,” he said, adding “Till date, not a single government representative bothered to pay a visit to this area and look into our issues.”

He said our school going children have to walk barefoot 4 to 5 kilometers daily through dense forests. “The foremost issue is that girls are being kept away from school to avoid any catastrophe,” Manzoor said.

According to locals, they are unable to reach Handwara during winters “as all the connectivity towards main town gets blocked by the snow.”

“We have stored all the food and household items in advance to cope up with winter,” locals complained.

When contacted by GNS, Deputy Commissioner, Kupwara, Itrat Hussain said, we are looking into the matter on priority basis. ‘So far, a small road has been buildup by Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in the area,” he said, adding that we will look into all the possibilities to address their demands.

However, an amount of rupees 4817 lakh have been spent so far in previous fiscal year on the execution of 38 road projects under PMGSY in Kupwara district under sixth phase in which 15 roads have been completed by covering 56.13 kms road length in the district. (GNS)