Firdous Qadri
Distressing images have once again appeared from Kupwara’s Pushwari area where an old man can be seen crawling on a wood log erected on a river- the log is the only connection of Pushwari with the rest of the world.
Locals had voluntarily constructed a bridge connecting in the Kupwara border district, but it was washed away by floods in July 2020, causing various problems to the people. Locals say that they built the bridge voluntarily, but its collapse has once again cut off our communication.
This is very shameful and unfortunate – People of Pushwari kupwara risk there life to cross the bridge due to absence of concrete bridge which will connect this village to another village.@OfficeOfLGJandK @manojsinha_ @diprjk @AmitShah@dckupwara@DDC_Kupwara @RajeshShavan pic.twitter.com/KO8NStINQD
— Firdous Qadri (@FirdousQadriph1) February 27, 2022
A local, talking to The Kashmiriyat over the phone said that the life of hundreds of locals is at risk as they have to cross the water body every day. He said that the flow of the river is extremely high and can pose danger to human life. “The government had started work for the construction of a big bridge more than ten years ago but the work was stopped after constructing one or two pillars,”he said.
Adding further, he said, “We had built the bridge with donations but now it has collapsed again due to floods. When the government left the construction work on the bridge unfinished, we voluntarily collected donations and built a bridge nearby, but it collapsed again due to the floods, which affected about 40 villages”.
The contact with other villages is affected due to this collapse.
“Once again, we have decided to build the bridge by raising funds, but the water level is not falling yet,” he said while speaking to The Kashmiriyat.
“The people are facing various problems due to the collapse of the bridge. A relative on one side of the bridge can not meet a relative from the village on the other side”, another local resident said.
“if the government had built a concrete bridge, it would not have collapsed due to minor floods and people would not have faced any difficulties” he added.
The people are blaming Government for the lack of attention which is creating so much problem for the people.