The Jammu and Kashmir administration is set to kick-off its back to village (B2V) programme next month to address the growing disconnect between people and the official machinery amid the pandemic.
However, grassroots level political workers in the Valley have termed it administration’s attempt to marginalise them in the absence of an elected regime.
The programme, during which thousands of officers will spread out in different villages of the UT to address public grievances, is a first since Manoj Sinha took over as the new Lieutenant governor of J&K last month. Earlier, two B2V programmes were held in June and November last year.
For the past two weeks, Sinha has been visiting various districts meeting delegations of people and students as part of his public outreach programme.
MP from South Kashmir and senior NC leader, Hasnain Masoodi, said B2V is only a slogan to portray it as an alternative to traditional politics.
“We have seen that B2V programmes have not delivered at the ground level. If we go from place to place there is no imprint at all. We find people of marginalised sections have same problems. Affordable housing is not implemented at all and safe drinking water is available for less than 40 percent of the population,” Masoodi said.
{{/usCountry}}“We have seen that B2V programmes have not delivered at the ground level. If we go from place to place there is no imprint at all. We find people of marginalised sections have same problems. Affordable housing is not implemented at all and safe drinking water is available for less than 40 percent of the population,” Masoodi said.
{{/usCountry}}“People have become increasingly conscious of the absence of a political system. The whole exercise is to marginalise the political workers at the grassroots level. It is bureaucracy trying to create an alternative parallel to the conventional politics, but they are not able to do it,” he said.
The third phase of B2V programme, scheduled in two steps from September 10 to 20 as pre-B2V and October 2 to 20, would be held at a time when the daily number of Covid-19 cases has been showing a sharp spike in the UT.
Since September 3, the number of daily infections has been hovering above 1,000, a new trend since the pandemic began. On September 8, as many as 1,355 persons tested positive in the highest single-day spike in J&K so far. The total number of positive cases has reached 45,925 till September 8,of which 32,722 are in Kashmir and 13,203 in Jammu. Not only that, the region has recorded 815 deaths – 112 of them in first eight days of September, 326 in August and 276 in July.
Notwithstanding the grim Covid-19 statistics, information director Syed Sehrish Asgar chaired a preparatory meeting of her officers to discuss the arrangements for the conduct of the third phase of B2V programme. It was decided in the meeting that to raise awareness, cultural officers of both the divisions of Kashmir and Jammu shall organise Nukad Nataks at block, district, divisional and UT levels by strictly adhering to SoPs and Covid-19 guidelines, a government spokesman said.
Earlier on September 5, Rohit Kansal, principal secretary of power development and information departments, who is also government spokesperson, had claimed in a press conference that the programme has “generated huge interest” among people and the administration has decided another version of the programme in the form of B2V-III.
“We are confident that the entire next month will be a festival of public grievance redressal, public service delivery and development at the panchayat level,” he said.