Jahangeer Ganaie

5 months on, Pulwama village awaits snowfall compensation

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Pulwama: More than five months since the untimely snowfall damaged orchards across the valley in November last year, district authorities in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district have failed to compensate the orchardists of Zahidbagh village.
While orchardists from neighbouring villages had received the compensation “months ago”, the aggrieved orchardists from Zahidbagh complained that authorities had failed to compensate this village so far.
This, they said, was despite the concerned departments assessed their damage “before the exercise was carried out in other other villages”.
“But other villages got compensation three months ago, but we haven’t received a single penny so far,” Mohammad Habibullah, a local told ‘Kashmir Vision’.
“We have visited the offices of concerned officials several times regarding the issue, but to no avail, he added.
A revenue official told ‘Kashmir Vision’ that though the village is part of Pulwama district, “but its orchards are under the jurisdiction of Shopian district administration, which has to distribute the compensation to the orchardists”.
However, an official in district administration Shopian said, “We have already received list of the affected orchardists, but the shortage of funds is delaying the process”.
District Development Commissioner Shopian, Dr Owais Ahmad said that nobody had brought this issue into his notice.
“I will look into the matter and orchardists will get compensation as early as possible”, he added.


Jahangeer Ganaie

Jahangeer Ganaie is a reporter and covers regional news and can be contacted [email protected]

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