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BARWAL DESERVES DUE SHARE OF DEVELOPMENT

Young Bites. Dated: 1/15/2018 9:02:59 AM

G.L Khajuria
The village Barwal lying some 8kms away from Kathua district headquarter is having a population arounding 30,000 souls as per population census 2011 out of 512 villages, it is second biggest populated next to Nagri Parole tehsil. The villages branches off from national highway 1 A some 5kms from Kali bari (Kathua) towards Jammu. On way from BarwalMorh ahead covering 3kms towards its north when one reaches Barwalmandi which is the face of the village. The predominant population is of Rajputs and Brahmins amalgamated with other communities. They inhabit with cohesive co-ordination and share and participate in their joys and sorrows.
The people are well educated, hospitable and of joyial nature. Though agriculture is not the main stay, the people are in government jobs from lower rank to the higher strata of all rank and file. The people are daredevil and valiant that is why 60 to 70% of youth is in the defence services.
The village is diversified into three prominent Mandies viz. Manjli, Ter and Ranjole with around 300 Mohallas. Each Mohalla is having its own identity and has been nomenclaturised with some unique feature affiliated to ancestral codification.
Towards its east isUttri and West Jandoor and on the north are Bohra-Katheria-Kumari wherefrom Mata BalaSundri and Mal Mata Sukrala Devi are conveniently communicable through lush green vibrant forest. Since the village falls in Kandi beet (savaliks) so the people are toilng and hard working and are used to face all oddities of weather and are always smiling with no sign of agony on their faces.
The village is surrounded by other prominent villages hamlets vizbagyal (south), pali, Thandoon, Budhi (west), KumariKathera (North-east), Logate,Sarr,Janglote, Khrote, Hatli (East) and LachhipuraBuswain (South east)
The village is safely pocketed and has always sheltered the inhabitants of bordering villages during turmoil and turbulence ensuing from frequent attacks by neighbouringPakistan. Since the location of the village is on the north of national highway, it has proved to be of great asset not only to adjoining villages but also during intricacies and squabbles in the events of Pak’s aggression in 1947, 1965 and 1971 when there was chaos and confusion in the border areas. Not only that the inhabitants of the villages helped a lot to the wounded valiant soldiers who were being shifted from war gone to all available hospitals.
Like Kathua, the traditional language of the villagers is Dogri, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu and with the passage of time and advancement in educational front, the people have become accustomed to English. The Rajputs are mostly Jasrotia, Chib, lakhanpuria and Brahmins are mostly Khajurias who over the years have been designated as purhatis of high dignity and calibe Omar warns against divisive narrative; says need to protect secular co-existence
JAMMU
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today warned people against a divisive narrative and asserted that the future would be defined by efforts of the present generation to protect secular co- existence.
In his message read out at a day-long seminar ‘Bridging the Divide’ organised here by the Epilogue magazine, Abdullah » Cont. on Pg 11 r and enjoy utmost respect and dignity amongst all communities.
The village is having an assembly of temples spreaded over the village and adjoining hamlets. These temples are having images of multihued Gods and Goddesses. There is no exception of Shiv Lingams which are enthusiastically worshiped for blessings showering of sacred water on Shiv Lingam and offering ‘Belpatri’ leaves of the wood apple – Angle marmelos. The shiv lingam is besmeard with saffron, chandan which pleases Lord Shiva who in turn showers blessings.
There are other temples of Goddesses vizChintPurni who deprives of all agony and worries.
Despite the fact that this village is having a vast expanse of various hamlets with inhabitating cohesive communities and exhibit peace and harmony. The village has been deprived of its due share of developmental front. on the one hand, the government lays stress for the development of the rural areas, then what hinders the government for the development of the village. The local representative SanjeevJasrotia is enjoined upon for the basic issues of all the villages named in the write upto visualize the problems with the authorities at the helm so as to mitigate the local problems and invigorating ways and means invigorating the developmental front. Of the various steps to be farm up in this respect, a few in precise form are enumerated here in the body of writeup.
Educational front demand invigoration: Though every village and hamlet abound in Govt. / Private institutions, yet these lack extra curricular activities such as games and sports which warrant their inculcation in a ramified way enabling the budding youth mentally sound and physically robust so that they can prove to be a pride crop of the locality in a broader spectrum. Despite the fact that this village sharing a vast expenses of various hamlets with inhibiting cohesive communities and exhibit peace and harmony, the village has been deprived of its due share of developmental front. On the one hand, the government lays stress for the development of the rural areas than what hinders the government for the development of this village. The local representative SanjeevJasrotia is enjoined upon for the basic issues of all the villages named in the write up to visualize the problems with the authorities at the helm so as to mitigate the problems and inventurise ways and means invigorating the developmental front.
Of the various steps to be taken up in this respect, a few in precise form are enumerated here in the body of write up.
01.>Educational front demand invigorating: Through every village and hamlets abound in government/ Private institutions, yet these lack extra-curricular activities such as games and sports which warrant their inculcating in a dramified way enabling the budding youth mentally sound and physically robust so that they can prove to be a pride crop of the locality in a broader spectrum. After all, they are the future of our nation who in the long run is an asset to the pride of the nation.
02.> Sanitation front: Clean India (Swachhbharat Mission) has very though fully propounded by our Prime Minister to make India. Neat , clean and defecation free. Here, political representative can play a far reaching role and project such issues to higher political spectrum to achieve successful achievement. The fundings for all such activities is no longer a big deal as Mr. Modi is very keen for such issues of National Interests.
04.> Construction/repaves of water bodies e.g. Talabs, ponds and underground tanks for storage of water. Since all these villages and hamlets fall away from outer shivaliks and there is acute shortage of water. In order to meet their requirement, traditionally our ancestors were wise enough to counter the ensuing water scarcity during summer spells in particular. So, they collectively constructed ponds, Talabs and underground water reservoirs to meet up impending eventualities. Occurrence of fire in these areas is the biggest challenge and to meet up such unforeseeable eventualities, such water structures are of ample importance.
The present position is that these water bodies stand abandoned which in the past was the sole source of water for the inhabiting population. Not only that, even the wild animals and birds were dependent upon such sources.With the advancement, tube wells, dug wells were constructed. Despite their widespread network, these don’t suffice the needs of the people.
So, under the prevailing scenario, renovation of erstwhile water bodies are warranted to supplemented the alliedtogetherwith requirements of the villages of the kandi belt. Not only the problem of water is making people’s life terrible and uneasy in these villages, but the situation is badly haunting from Lakhanpur to the last reach of Poonch district on Indo-Pak Border.
Keeping in view the suggestions quoted here–in-above and if implemented in their full spirits and sanctity, hopefully these are expected to go a long way in mitigating all related problems of village Barwal together with adjoining villages and hamlets in and around this prominent village.
The only need is awareness and public sansitilizations political will and administrated push up for which the locals shall have to pick up the thread and energize their allout efforts to put in place success-oriented results.
The author is former deputy
conservator of forest J&K
Email: glkhajuriafor@gmail.com