Shopian, May 13: Residents of ShalidarZakran, a Gujjar habitation nestled in the upper reaches of Shopian district in South Kashmir, embarked on a journey on Monday morning to cast their votes in hopes of seeing improvements in basic amenities.
Noor Ahmad, an elderly resident from Shalidar, shared with Rising Kashmir that he began his day herding his cattle to Jabdipora grazing land in the upper reaches of Shopian forests. After a simple breakfast of salted pink tea at his humble mud-and-wood hut, he hastened to the designated polling station at 6:00 am.
Traversing a distance of 12 kilometers from Jabdipora, Noor Ahmad arrived at the polling station located inside a primary school at Zakran. His journey, undertaken entirely on foot, took approximately two and a half hours, and he reached the polling station by 8:30 am. “I waited in a queue for about 5 hours to cast my vote at around 2:30 pm,” Noor Ahmad, said.
Zubair Ahmad Poswal, a young voter from the community, highlighted that while Shalidar is a mere 2 kilometers from Zakran, many residents had migrated to the upper reaches of Jabdipora for cattle grazing. Consequently, residents from Shalidar, ChotaMaidaan, and Zowdara had to undertake arduous journeys from Jabdipora to exercise their voting rights.
He said that most residents walked on foot but some aged residents including Kaka Tedwa and GanjuPoswal rode on horses to make their voices heard.
“Many families in our area don’t have access to tap connections forcing them to fetch drinking water from springs,” he said, adding they casted their vote hoping control on inflation and provision for tap connections in their area.
Zubair informed that they casted their vote to see blacktopped roads in their area .
“We hope that monthly electricity charges which have been hiked to get reviewed,” he said.
