In Bandipora’s Pannar village, Residents stage protest, urge authorities to provide basic facilities

Bandipora, Apr 07 (KNO): Urging authorities to address their grievances, the residents of Pannar village in North Kashmir's Bandipora district Wednesday staged a protest against the lack of basic facilities like road connectivity, electricity and potable water supply in their village.

The protesters said that the issue of the lack of basic facilities had not been addressed for several years despite numerous requests.

"There is no proper road connectivity, drinking water facility, electricity and no good schools for children in our village, " they said. "Are we not the natives of this place, don't we deserve the basic amenities of life."

The protesters pointed out that a normal health care facility is also, a distant dream to the residents as they have to travel eight kilometres to get medical facilities.

"The government has never paid attention to our poor slums which have ruined our educational institutions. We don't have drinking water here. We don't have roads, " Bashir Khan, a local said.

"Recently, when the results of the 10th grade came out, our high school Pannar recorded zero percentage result," he said.

Zareefa Bagem another elderly lady said that she has not seen electricity in her Mohalla since India became independent.

"It's just a misfortune for us. We have to live like this in all circumstances without basic facilities, " she said.

"Despite a freshwater body which passes through our village and provides water to the maximum villages of the district, the safe drinking water is still a distant dream for us," she said.

Gulam Hakeem Khan, another local said several memoranda have been submitted to the authority for a long time, but, there has been no response from either the district officials or the concerned block officials.

"Deputy Commissioner Bandipora promised us to visit our area but these promises proved fake," Khan said.

Meanwhile, the villagers appealed to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene and redress their genuine demands earliest so that they can breathe a sigh of relief—(KNO)