Feeling let down by the tall promises made by the politicians, including MoS PMO Jitendra Singh of developing a ‘smart village’, members of at least 50 families from Saddal village in Udhampur took out a protest march to highlight their plight in Jammu on Monday.
At least 40 villagers were buried alive in landslide in September 2014 after which 130 families were uprooted from their homes and hearths.
Though announcements were made by the local Member Parliament Jitendra Singh that he has adopted Saddal village and would develop the same as states first ‘smart village’ on ground, the displaced villagers alleged nothing much has changed.
All these families have been camping in a temporary shelter in Sui near Udhampur town. Some families are putting up in a community hall and others have been living with their relatives ever since.”
leaders of the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers part accompanied these villages to the office of Divisional commissioner Jammu where they submitted their memorandum of demands.
Agitated villagers and children, holding placards took out a march seeking Adarsh village for Saddal and adequate compensation for the flood and landslide victims of Sept 2014 catastrophe.
Addressing the media, Balwant Singh Mankotia recalled that the Sept 2014 deluge which rocked entire Jammu province at large caused immense loss to the lives, crops and live stock. He said that likewise village Saddal in Tehsil Moungri in District Udhampur had adversely bore the brunt of the disaster during which the entire hamlet was washed out and the infamous land slide resulted in the death of 40 souls who were buried alive under the debris. He divulged that subsequently after the disaster Dr. Jitender Singh, a local MP and Union MoS in BJP led NDA government visited the disaster site and promised immediate rehabilitation to the residents of the village at safer zones besides development of Saddal as ‘Adarsh Village’ under PM’s Adarsh Gram Yojna. Mankotia regretted that over two years had gone by but the tall promises doled out by the Minister had only proved to be mere rhetoric with no sign of succour or development.