Anantnag villages craves for ‘basic facilities’

Sameer Ahmad
Anantnag: Anderwan village, located on the foothills of famous tourist resort Kokernag in Anantnag district, craves for basic facilities like potable water supply, better road connectivity, schools, health facility and electricity.
“We face immense problems. First, we have no health center in the village, not even a dispensary. When anyone among us takes ill, we carry the patient on our shoulders to the about 4 kilometers to Hiller Kokernag on a rough road,” said a local, Abdul Rasheed Khan.
“We have no drinking water facility. Every week we are receiving two water tankers,” Khan said.
There is no school even as at least 250 students from the Village are enrolled in a nearby school. “The students have to walk almost 4 kms to reach a nearby government school at Hiller Kokernag,” said another resident.
The FCS&CS department has also not established a food store shop in the village, even as ration cards stand issued to every eligible individual.
“Even in the 21st century, we have no road. We have been deprived of all basic facilities by the successive regimes as no one has even bothered to visit the village in the last 60 years,” said Abdul Rashid, an elderly said. “The village is very backward even though the village is located less than 20 kilometers from district headquarter Anantnag.” The village comprises of 350 households is inhabited by Gujjars and Kashmiris.
The villagers said they have paid multiple visits to the government authorities and requested for the basic facilities “but to no avail.”