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People suffer due to absence of bridge on nullah
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Samote-Buddhal (Rajouri), August 7
When about four months ago, Shahanaz Akhter (in her 20s), died after she had complications during delivery,locals here said her life could have been saved had she been shifted to Rajouri District Hospital.

Vehicles have to cross this nullah to reach Buddhal and Mahore. A Tribune photograph

But even as her parents and parents-in-law tried their best to shift her to the district hospital, she died while being taken to the hospital as the vehicle carrying her couldn’t cross the overflowing Kroon Nullah (stream) where the state government has failed to reconstruct a bridge for the last 20 years.

The locals, who are furious over the government’s failure to reconstruct the bridge which was washed away in 1992, complain that every year hundreds of patients who are seriously ill and are to be shifted from Buddhal (in Rajouri district) and Mahore (in Reasi district), to Rajouri District Hospital or Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), Jammu, die during the rainy season as the vehicles have to cross the overflowing stream.

They added it was not only the precious lives which were lost due to the lackadaisical attitude of the government, but also during the rainy season when the water level rises in the river, the areas of Buddhal and Mahore are cut off leaving the people helpless.

“In 1992, heavy rains washed away the bridge near Samote along the Rajouri-Buddhal-Mahore Road connecting Koteranka with the far-off and backward areas of Buddhal and Mahore. Every year, during the rainy season, hundreds of patients, including pregnant women, die as the vehicles can’t cross the overflowing river during emergency situations. If it continues to rain for 2 days, our areas comprising more than 50,000 people are totally cut off from the rest of the world,” said Muhammad Rasheed, a resident of Bathan.

“The government should take a sympathetic view of the problem faced by the people here and should immediately get a bridge constructed so that we are not made to suffer further,” he added.

Jaipaul Singh, deputy commissioner, Rajouri, said a bridge was being constructed on the stream and would be completed soon.