KL Desk
SRINAGAR
NC lawmaker and former minister stunned state legislative council on Thursday saying that the extension of the railway line to Udhampur and beyond is playing with the centrality of Jammu. Immediate efforts are required to help its economy survive, he said.
Legislative Council Chairman Amrit Malhotra agreed to the serious nature of the issue and ruled that the house should have a longer debate on the subject so that some measures are taken in anticipation. Date for the discussion will be fixed once a motion is formally made, council secretariat officials informed.
Sadhotra who was responding to a question on the vehicular movement of passengers including yatris to Mata Vaishno Devi said that the gradual fall in the number of people passing through Jammu means a direct loss to the winter capital. Right now only 40-45% passengers are using vehicles to reach Katra.
“Once the train will connect to Katra, most of the more than one crore pilgrims will skip Jammu and go directly to the shrine town and that will create serious depression on the economy of Jammu,” Sadhotra said. “It will create a new Pathankote, the Punjab town that was a bustling city when it was the last rail head. It reduced to a garrison once the rail moved to Jammu and now it seems it is the turn of Jammu to become the new garrison city.” Sadhotra who earlier represented Marh constituency twice said the statistics offered by the state government indicate a gradual fall in the number of buses and cars entering Jammu.
The lawmakers concern was that while the development may not be able to be stopped, there is urgent requirement to upgrade facilities, especially the tourism related infrastructure so that part of more than 10 million yatris are attracted towards them. He specifically mentioned the government delay in implementation the upgradation of the Mubarak Mundi Complex, golf course, artificial lake and the Tawi bank beatification – projects which are moving at snail’s pace. He rejected the government statement suggesting there is some emphasis on rural and border tourism. “It is an urgent issue for Jammu so that economic interests of Jammu are safeguarded well before the new situation will take over,” he asserted.
A number of other lawmakers took part in the brief discussion. PDPs Choudhary Murtaza Khan was desperate to know if the economy of Jammu was solely dependent on pilgrim tourism. Jugal Kishore of Congress even suggested that the work on the railway line between Katra and Srinagar should be stopped. He even said that the new highway being
set up between Srinagar and Jammu is bypassing all the major towns in between and should be done away with.
Najeeb Suharwardy, an NC veteran from Chenab Valley and a former minister quipped that Jammu would not have been so anxious had it taken care of the developmental requirements of the areas falling in Jammu region. The new developmental plans in the region include setting up of Bani Bhaderwah road, he said, which will also bypass Jammu. “Jammu should have been a region but unfortunately it was always taken as a city and now when situations are changing nobody can help Jammu,” he said.
