Suhail Rather
Bandipora, 22 June: The role of the HDF employees in Bandipora has been highly appreciated by the authorities and locals alike for leading the fight against COVID-19 in this northern district despite not being paid for almost two years now.
According to the details, around five dozen HDF employees in the district perform COVID-19 duties including accompanying the inoculation teams in the remote areas of the district.
Similarly, Abdul Aziz of Khayar Village of Bandipora who has been performing his duties as an HDF for almost over 6 years at Vewan village, earned a tag as the first village in India to vaccinate all its 18 years and above population. Aziz has to lead the medical teams to the remote areas of Vewan, Athwatoo and Tangath. Not only that, for being there over these years, Aziz was a key person to win the trust of the locals informing them about the benefits of the vaccine.
Aziz, despite not being paid for over two years, finds the job important as according to him, he is "serving humanity".
With meagre no means for running the house at his village in Khayar, Aziz says, he weekly treks to and from the village for over 4 hours to reach the village as he is not able to pay the cab fare.
Having three children at home, Aziz says, " at times, it is really hard to make my children understand the situation I am passing through."
Despite not being paid, Aziz said, for him, the job is to please Almighty and to earn rewards from the hereafter as for him Sadqa, or Zakat and Hajj or an animal for sacrifice is not a viable option for being in poor condition. "Maybe my service to humanity that too in the pandemic will be accepted as a good deed," Aziz said.
However, still hopeful that at a certain time the government will pay heed to their miseries, Aziz said, "there is nothing else I can do now at this age, but I wait in hope that the government will acknowledge our efforts and make some good decisions for us."
As per officials, over 50 employees are working on HDF and 12 among these are at DH Bandipora while 30 are actively performing COVID-19 duties in the district far-flung areas.