As the electioneering is entering in the last leg of phase-I of 2014 Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir the issues confronting ‘aam admi’ and those revolving around ‘Bijli, Sadak and Pani’ have taken a back seat.
The top guns deployed by the political parties to woo the electorate in the hilly districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban are focusing more on ‘emotive’ and ‘sensitive’ issues than presenting their party’s road map on how to address the issue of poor road network,lack of health care and education infrastructure.
In the absence of intense debate on developmental issues, emotive issues such as revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Abrogation of Article 370, regional discrimination form basis of election campaign speeches of senior party leaders belonging to different political outfits. So far no political party has raised the issue of justice for the victims of Kishtwar riots in which three civilian lives were lost.
According to local voters in erstwhile Doda district, “each day precious civilian lives are lost in fatal road accidents but till date no state govt has solved the decade old problem”. According to them shifting of patients to Jammu due to lack of specialised treatment and shortage of manpower in health care institutions is a cause of major worry for them but political parties are shying away from addressing their real issues and wasting time during election speeches on their own propaganda.
The BJP supporters demanding change claim Congress legislators wasted 12 long years in the govt and failed to develop basic infrastructure in the region.They claimed good governance by the BJP led govt can resolve basic issues and create better infrastructure in keeping with the demand of the people of remote areas.