Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sopur seeks administrative district

Sopur, Jan 28: Just a week after announcement of separate police district for Sopur, the long pending demand for separate administrative district is back in this north Kashmir town. The residents of Sopur and adjoining areas told that formation of separate district would end the ‘discrimination and injustice’ faced by region at the hands of successive regimes, and would also empower them administratively. “From the time of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah we have been demanding separate district but our repeated pleas have fallen on deaf ears. We have knocked the doors of Chief Ministers, but except hollow assurances nothing has been done,” says Sopur Traders Federation President, Ghulam Nabi Khan.
According to the local residents, the denial of district for Sopur for being in proximity with Varmul district headquarters holds no ground, as other districts carved out in 2006 have lesser distance with neighbouring districts. “The distance between Varmul and Sopur is 17 kilometres and some districts formed in 2006 are nearer to their adjoining district headquarters,” says Nazir Ahmed Bhat, a resident of the town.
Former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad during his tenure had created eight new districts in the state in July 2006, with four each in Jammu and Kashmir divisions. The residents justify their demand by the fact that Sopur is the fifth largest town in the state, and Asia’s second largest fresh fruit market is here with trade running into crores of rupees.

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