Fearing for their lives, panchs, councillors lie low in Srinagar motels

Srinagar, Mar 15: Ever since Ahmad (name changed) emerged as winner in Panchayat elections from a village in Tral area of south Kashmir last year, he has been able to visit his home only thrice to meet the family.
The election, which was held in November, last year, provided no relief to him and he, like many of his counterparts, had to seek refuge in Srinagar, following the “lack of adequate security by the government.”
Following threats given by militants against participation in the elections and continuing violence in Pulwama, Ahmad has to put up in a guest house guarded by multiple CRPF personnel in Rajbagh here.
“Many elected Panchs and Sarpanchs from south Kashmir are putting up in hotels and guest houses in Srinagar. We don’t have enough accommodation and security in our respective districts due to which our stay was temporarily arranged in Srinagar areas,” he said.
Ahmad said the Panchayat elections have not proven productive so far as Panchayat related works in the state were yet to begin.
“May be we will think of returning home and people will support us once government empowers us. So far no major announcement has come from the government for Panchs,” he said.
Post Panchayat election, the Panchs and Sarpanchs have, because of looming danger, hardly walked in open and interacted with people in their respective villages.
Akin to Panchs, majority of the corporators in Srinagar’s volatile areas too are forced to lay low in hotels in Dalgate, Rajbagh and Munawarbad.
While nearly 30 have been accommodated in MLA hostels, which are highly guarded, rest of the corporators are unhappy for being accommodated in low budget hotels with least security.
“Many of the elected counsellors have not been allotted accommodation by the government. No individual security has been provided to us so far and as such we are unable to begin our political activities,” said Asif Ahmad Beigh, a councillor from ward 62 of Jogilankar area.
Beigh said that many have stopped visiting to their respective wards due to the persisting security threat.
“Every ward has at least 20,000 to 30,000 people. We can’t move freely in absence of a proper security cover by the government,” he said.
A police officer, who wished not to be named, said the cluster accommodations were made to ensure collective security for ‘vulnerable’ candidates.
“It wasn’t possible to provide individual security to each and every contestant as they are huge in numbers as compared to the candidates fighting assembly and parliamentary polls,” he said.