Suhail Dar
The residents of Kadlabal in the Seer area of Anantnag accused the concerned authorities for negligence when they were forced to take a pregnant lady to the hospital in Seer town.
Locals told The Kashmiriyat that a pregnant woman had to be ferried on the shoulders when the locals were on the way to their home from Anantnag’s Maternity and Child Care hospital in Sherbagh.
“Although the snow on main roads and townships has been cleared, the areas inhibited mostly by Gujjar-Bakerwal tribal groups are yet to receive official attention,” the resident said.
He said that their area, barely 500 meters away from main road in Seer Hamdan, is yet to be cleared of the snow forcing the locals to ferry the preganent woman on a cart over their shoulders.
Following the late winter moderate snowfall, people across the valley have been complaining of power cuts, disruption in transport connectivity.
Though the administration has achieved success in removing snow in most parts of the valley, the remote rural areas have been worst hit by the crisis in the aftermath of the snowfall.
This is not the first incident of this sort to have happened in Kashmir.
On February 10, 2023, braving bone-chilling winter, the residents of Monabal area in Mawer Qalamabad in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district ferried a 78-year-old man Saya Bokira (78) fell sick after which he was ferried to the hospital by the locals for a distance of over a kilometer.
Similarly in January 2022, locals in the Budnamal area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district were “forced” to carry a pregnant woman on their shoulders to some distance and then on horse to the hospital in knee-deep snow on Saturday.
The historical marginalization and absence of adequate representation in the administrative body, Gujjar and Bakerwal ethnic groups have always been on the receiving end.