The perpetual power cuts and the exorbitant prices of fuel have rendered the area’s rapidly vanishing forests, the only available source of firewood, as their last defence against the freezing cold.
Civic and commercial life has come to a standstill in Jhelum, Neelam and Leepa valleys as hundreds of villages and towns remain plunged in the darkness for weeks, making many jobless and causing much strife to young students.
It is no mystery then that the villagers have run out of patience. To attract the attention of the government towards their miseries, they have planned protests in the area.
Residents of Chakothi town, a trade hub which has been facing week-long power shutdowns for almost two years, had planned to block the passage of the intra-LoC trade truck service as a protest on Tuesday, but were unable to do so as it [truck service] was cancelled due to a strike by traders against the state government on the same day.
Unfortunately, neither the ruling nor the opposition parties have made any efforts for alleviating the people’s misery.
Last month, Raja Farooq Haider Khan, visited his constituency, Chakothi, to gain support for his newly launched Muslim League-N in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Strangely, his supporters, although upset about the power cuts, did not demand the restoration of electricity.
Just a kilometre across the LoC, Indian-held Kashmir government has been providing LPG on a subsidised rate of only Rs300 per 11 kilogramme cylinder for “the protection of forests”, according to a local newspaper.
“Why is the government not providing subsidised LPG and firewood to us, in order to end our misery and conserve the forests that are fast disappearing?” asked Muhammad Adil, 21, a shopkeeper in Chakothi.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2011.
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