Pampore: The residents in Saffron town Pampore area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district have accused Roads and Buildings department for failing to resurface various roads and link roads in the Saffron town.
A number of residents and delegations told Kashmir Reader that the R & B department ignored Saffron town. “All other areas in the district saw macadamisation of roads, link roads and lanes but saffron town Pampore was taken far -granted,” they said.
The local residents said that they have been pleading before authorities for macadamisation of these vital roads and link roads which include roads in Frestabal, Namblabal, Tulbagh, Bagandar and Zaffron colony-Pampore road.
“We were ignored by previous governments and we continue to face this discrimination even up to this day, Suhail Ahmad,” a local resident of Umar Colony Pampore said.
He said that they have been pleading before authorities of Roads & Buildings Department (R&B), successive deputy commissioners and other higher authorities for the last four years for macdemisation of a link road from main highway to Masjid Umar Frestabal.
“We have been following the issue since 2017 and in 2018 we wrote to B B Viyas, then chief secretary of Kashmir, filed a complaint to the governor’s grievance cell but till date nothing was done,” Suhail told Kashmir Reader.
The locals told Kashmir Reader that a half kilometer road stretch has been ignored by officials of R&B department in past when around 1200 meters of road stretch were macadamized.
They said that when authorities of R&B were asked as to why they left this half kilometer without macdaamisation they were told that it will be taken up next year.
“Four years have passed since then but the road remains unattended,” “We demand LG administration to look into the matter as deteriorated roads trigger health issues due to mounting dust apart from causing inconvenience to commuters,” they residents said.
The people Threatened to hit the streets if the road is not taken up this year.
Bashir Ahmad Bhat, member of civil society Pampore told that Pampore town is always ignored on developmental front. He added that successive governments gave step motherly treatment to Pampore.
” Roads in far flung areas have been macadamized but this saffron town which is the face of Pulwama remains underdeveloped and various roads depict its sorry state,” he said.
The local residents from Shar Shali, Tulbagh and Kranchoo also alleged that the R and B department turned a blind eye to dilapidated roads in their area.
Assistant Executive Engineer Pampore, Mushtaq Ahmad told Kashmir Reader that this year their main focus was on main roads.
“For other road estimates to be submitted to the government, once we receive authorization the macadamisation will be taken up,” he said.

BILAL HABIB