14 years on, SDH building in Kulgam’s DH Pora awaits completion
Pending work tendered out, work will resume soon: Official
Kulgam: Even after a lapse of over 14 years, the construction of Sub-district hospital in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district awaits completion and as a result the hospital continues to function from a shabby building.
Locals said that the hospital was sanctioned in year 2008 and was scheduled to be completed in three years but even after a passage of 14 years the hospital is nowhere near completion.
They said around 50 percent work has been done as of now and the work has been put on halt since many years now.
Officials within the health department alleged that the ill planning of the health officials besides meddling by various politicians delayed the project due to which people of vast area are suffering.
They said that after completing nearly 50 percent of the work, the department under the pressure by some politicians declared the site unfit and started searching for an alternative site.
They further added that after taking years in identifying a new location, official choose to construct modern sub district hospital at the site of Police Station Damhal Hanjipora which was set on fire during 2016 unrest and the site where the building for SDH was constructed was given to police for construction of a Police station.
The swapping of locations not only took time, overstretched the work but also wasted the funds, they said, adding that this hospital became victim of political meddling as well as every local leader besides party were in want of its credit instead of preferring benefits to the local population.
Locals said that the upper belt of the Kulgam has always became victim of power game and has seen no development on ground.
“We are forced to visit District hospital Kulgam for even minor procedures as authorities have failed to complete the new building,” the locals said.
This is Sub district hospital on paper but it is just functioning as a PHC in absence of facilities and government must look into it seriously, they added.
The locals have now requested authorities to look into the matter and complete the hospital at an earliest so that they can heave a sigh of relief.
An official of the district administration Kulgam said that they have taken up the issue with Health and Medical Education Department and 5 crores have been spent under Capex budget for completion of the building.
He said that pending work has been tendered out and we are expecting that work on the project will resume in next one month.
Jahangeer Ganaie
