According to the BPL survey (2008) conducted by Directorate of Economics & Statistics, J&K, these two regions are poorest in the state. The average percentage of population living below the poverty line is astonishing 33.53 per cent as against the state average of 21.63 percent. The remaining four districts of Jammu have just 15.53 of their population living below the poverty line.
Reasi, Kishtwar and Ramban rest at the bottom of the index with 37.72, 37.73 and 37.93 per cent of people respectively living under the poverty line. The disparity gives weight to the allegation by these people as to where the funds, meant for their development, are going.
In agriculture also, they sit at the bottom. The cultivable area as percentage of reported area in these two regions is 19.91 as against the state average of 33.61. Gross area irrigated as percentage of gross area sown in these two regions is 9.61 as against the state average of 40.85 percent. Net area irrigated as percentage of Net area sown for these two regions is 10.51 as against the state average of 41.97 percent.
In Small Scale Industries employment, the six districts have the combined share of 7.59 per cent. In contrast, Jammu district alone commands 27.77 percent of total employment generated in SSI sector. Even Kathua’s share is 7.84 per cent– higher than these six districts combined.
The credit deposit for this region is around 22 percent while as it is 49.63 for entire state and 38.42 for other four districts of Jammu division. In terms of road length per lakh of population for 2007-08, Rajouri is the lowest with 73.88 Kms. The state average is 150.71 Kms. On the indicator of road length per 100 sq. kms of area Doda including Kishtwar and Ramban, the PWD records show that these districts have one of the lowest road densities averaging 7.77 Kms against state density of 18.12 Kms.
Resources
If resources are an indicator for the prospect of development, these six districts lack none. The region has state’s best forests with quality timber that can build a timber industry worth billions of dollars. “The Chenab valley has the potential of meeting the entire timber demand of the state,” said Suharwardy. Kishtwar has world’s best Saffron which sells at higher than the cost of Kashmir Saffron. Rajouri has a good number of expatriate population eager to invest there. Chenab valley has the identified power potential of 15000 MW’s, enough to power the entire state and propel the state economy with its export.
The region has beautiful valleys that can attract millions of tourists if developed properly. The mineral resources too are massive. Paddar mines in Kishtwar produce world’s best Sapphire.
Doda has huge potential for Olive oil and its Walnuts are already most sought after. The exploitation of these resources needs local expertise, which is absent in present set up. “There is no attention towards exploiting our (resource) potential,” said Suharwardy. “We produce one of the largest Bananas but its taste is not of export quality. If some research is done in this regard, it will become another cash crop for our state.”
The region has also been able to produce first ever ‘Shining Cotton’ crop but the project was later abandoned due to unknown reasons. According to some estimates, the Chenab valley has the potential to rival entire Himachal Pradesh in fruit production, if proper steps are taken in this regard.
Hope of development
Fed up with the current set up which has failed to yield fruits of development, the creation of HDCs is seen as the only hope of development in these regions.
“Imagine what we can do when the elected members of HDC will have freedom to sanction projects upto Rs 5 crores,” says Hashmi, while referring to special powers resting with LAHDCs in Leh and Kargil. “We know our needs, we know the priority, we will monitor the projects locally and we will be accountable before people.”
Currently the same is done from divisional offices in Jammu or civil secretariat, where according to locals the real needs of region get mired in the maze of ignorance, bias and alien feeling.
In fact, the LAHDC chairman enjoys at times more powers than the Chief Minister. For example, the J&K CM has powers to sanction projects upto Rs 2 crore and anything beyond that needs a cabinet approval instead of the Rs 5 Crore limit for the LAHDC chairman.
