Abid Bashir
Pulwama, Sep 18: Pulwama district of South Kashmir has seen a huge transition over the years. On Wednesday, serpentine lines were seen outside the majority of polling booth of this politically significant Assembly constituency of Kashmir. What caught the attention of the media were the Octogenarian people, some of them on wheel-chairs and some taking the help of sticks to reach out to the polling booths to cast votes.
Ghulam Muhammad, 82, said: “I don’t feel anything will happen. Nothing has happened in the past 50 years. Most of the winning candidates forget their voters. Only a few remember us. Very few fulfil promises. Many of them don’t allow us to enter their homes after they win.”
Asked despite having bitter experience that nothing happens, why he chose to vote this time too, he said maybe better sense prevails. “Who knows my vote may change the heart of the candidate I have voted for. It’s better to try luck, who knows whether I will be alive next time,” he said. “If the candidate for whom I voted for wins, I will catch-hold of him tomorrow and ensure my children and grandchildren get jobs.”
His wife, Khadija, 80, however, differed with her husband. “It’s true that nothing has happened in the past. But this time, it seems candidates in fray are sincere and won’t forget the voters. Wasting a vote is not a good suggestion,” she said.
Another octogenarian Ali Muhammad Alai, a resident of Kakapora, Pulwama claimed that he had come to vote to get back his land retrieved by the J&K administration two years ago. “When late Jawahar Lal Nehru visited Kakapora, Pulwama he asked us to use the land for growing paddy and other crops. “It was the Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad who installed a water pump shed in Kakapora for water supply to the fields. Ghulam Nabi Azad initiated the process of giving us ownership rights of the land under our use for decades but the process stalled after his government was toppled.”
Alai said two years ago, LG Manoj Sinha led administration retrieved almost 30 acres of land from us and other villagers. “We protested but got lathis. Now I have voted to get back the land,” he said.
A group of elderly people present on the occasion stated that sadak, pani and bijli will continue to remain issues to be resolved by the candidate who wins.
