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NC hunts for votes among homeless

Mukhtar Ahmad in Kulan

Residents of Pandrass and Matayan villages in Drass sector are being forced to return to their homes, which they deserted when the area came under the occupation of Pakistan-backed intruders, ahead of the three-phased polling in the state that begins on September 5. But there is one problem: their homes have been long reduced to rubble in the exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani forces.

Though the government maintains that only 'forceful persuasion' is being used, it is quite clear that the ruling National Congress is desperate to have the villagers back in their homes in time to caste their vote - hopefully in its favour.

There is a reason why Farooq Abdullah's government is so keen to send the villagers back. The Drass sector is a traditional NC bastion and the party hopes to reap a rich a harvest here this time too.

But, that may not be possible. If the mood at the temporary camp in Kulan on Srinagar-Kargil highway, where residents of Pandrass and Matayan are lodged, is anything to go by, the villagers want to punish the chief minister and his party.

When this correspondent visited the camp located on the Kashmir side of the treacherous Zojila Pass, the villagers were busy collecting their meagre belongings to be carted home in trucks that the Kargil District Magistrate was to send any time.

"The Deputy Commissioner has asked us to be ready to return to our homes. What homes? There is nothing left. Some of my fellow villagers visited Matayan a few days back and came back with the news that everything has been destroyed in the shelling," said the village head of Matayan, Wahab Bhat

Villagers don't mind voting, but they will only support candidates who get them relief. And any way, election is hardly a priority for them. It's the harsh winter, only a couple of months away now, that they are worried about.

"We have nothing to eat this winter. We work through the year and store food and other essentials for the winter. But we have been away from our farms for so long...we have exhausted all our reserves,'' said a villager.

The Matayan Drass area is one of the coldest inhabited areas in the world and temperatures here dip to minus 50 degrees during winter.

''They want us to be in Pandrass and Matayan so that we can vote. Nobody is worried about what we will eat and where we will live,'' said Bhat.

"The chief minister never bothered to visit us to see our pitiable condition. Only his son Omar Abdullah accompanied by the local MLA visited us. He promised everything but in the end we got nothing from this government," said Ramzan Bhat, a villager.

It's not that the villagers don't want to go home. There stay at Kulan has been far from comfortable. The pittance the state government offered them during their stay in Kulan was far too short of requirement.

During their three-month stay in Kulan the villagers were provided 5 kg rice and 4 litres of kerosene in June; and 7 kg rice and Rs 200 per person per family family in July. "That was like rubbing salt in our wounds. We feel it would have been better had we stayed back and died in Pakistani shelling rather than face this humiliation," cried Noora Bano (50).

Government officials, on their part, say they have no choice but to move these villagers back to their villages. "We know their difficulties, but the state does not have money even to pay the salary of its employees. How can we continue to support so many people," said a senior official.

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