Agitated residents in J-K's Doda threaten to boycott LS polls over delay in road construction

Irked over the inordinate delay to connect their villages with a motorable road, residents of seven villages in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday staged a protest and threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha polls.

The villagers of Dhara, Dhaloa, Hanga, Bharwa, Chak-Katoch, Dharaan and Noori falling in three panchayats on the western hills of Bhaderwah valley assembled near the Rashtriya Rifles headquarters at Sarna and staged the protest.

The villagers said they have decided to continue with peaceful protests with the slogan 'No Road, No Vote' to highlight their demand for completion of the already sanctioned Gatha-Dhaloa road without any further delay.

The road was supposed to connect seven villages of Sarna and Hanga panchayats with the Bhaderwah-Doda Highway.

The work on the road was started by the Roads and Buildings Department in 2008 and was later transferred under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in 2015 with a deadline of 18 months for its completion but even after four years, the work is yet to start, the protesters claimed.

When contacted, the Executive Engineer, PMGSY Doda, Ajay Kumar Raju admitted delay in the execution of the work on the road and said, "We are waiting for no objection certificate (NOC) from the Forest Department."