www.freepresskashmir.news VOL 10 ISSUE 14 SRINAGAR APRIL 05-11, 2021 PAGES 16 ` 15.00 JKENG/2011/36414 : REGISTERED PHOTO BY MARILA LATIF FOR FPK HUNG HOUSE! 02 WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 05 – APRIL 11, 2021 TO BOOK AN ADVERTISEMENT WITH US: Contact at: +0194-2475633 E-Mails: [email protected] | [email protected] APRIL 05 – APRIL 11, 2021 WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE 03 WEEKLY EDITION APRIL _ 05-11 _ 2021 _ VOL _ 10 _ ISSUE _ 14 08 COVER STORY 04 FEATURE OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS By Arjumand Shaheen Andrabi 06 CULTURE GRAVEYARD GLORY HUNG HOUSE! By Nasir Yousufi By Marila Latif 14 INFRASTRUCTURE TRIBAL TRAUMA By Bisma Bhat 12 HEALTH CURE OF CULTURE By FPK Desk Owned, Printed and Published by: Qazi Zaid | Published from: Second Floor, Aqsa Mall, Jehangir Chowk, Srinagar | Printed at: Khidmat Offset Printing Press, The Bund, Srinagar Registered: JKENG/2011/36414 | Features Editor: Bilal Handoo | Layout & Graphics: Suhail Sultan | Contact at: +0194-2475633 | E-Mails: [email protected] | [email protected] 04 FEATURE WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 05 – APRIL 11, 2021 Occupational Hazards Despite being hailed as ‘unsung heroes’, linemen of Kashmir power department are grappling with a low-pay, hazardous duty, and lack of post-trauma shock-absorbing system. By Arjumand Shaheen Andrabi HE DARKNESS HE USED to drive out with his dauntless duty has now engulfed his own Tlife and liveliness. In the state of powerlessness, he flash- es a beaming smile of being true to his role. But despite risking his own life to light peoples’ homes, the ex-linesman now finds himself as a cast off crew member struggling to feed his family. His shocking plight invokes a telling Kashmiri phrase: “Nan’gie taa’ri lag’un” (Getting electrocuted). Inside his home, hollowness created by his despairing self is blatant. His crippled state makes him a hopeless person bitten and burnt by the shabby affairs of the valley. But before the enforced tragedy—known to devour his tribe, some of whom are often captured roasted on livewires of the valley—the erstwhile eager man would act as a leading light. He now leads a destitute life of a doomed person. The life-changing shock came in 2015, when 25-year-old Nazir Khan came in direct contact with a livewire during the repairing work in his native village, Kalaroos area of Kupwara district. He fell down from a 10-feet tall electric pole, with a loud thud on a blacktop, and fainted on the spot. He survived the shock, but was handicapped for life. “I was about to finish the work when someone connected the electricity from the source and my head came in direct contact with the livewire,” Khan recalls the fateful day of March 6, 2015, when as usual, he was called up to repair a damaged wire on the pole. “I tried to get off my head from the shock had caused the grievous damage dies or gets injured, they say, they’re not wire with my hands but while doing that and to prevent the further impairment, provided any financial support. the wire engrossed my hands.” they needed to cut down my both arms.” The far cry in this trouble-torn tribe He somehow managed to free himself Khan is among the 70,430 reported remains that they’re being engaged as from wire and fell down unconscious. casual labours engaged by Power Devel- a technical staff without any proper Locals immediately rushed him to a opment Department (PDD) in Jammu training and safety equipment. nearby local hospital, where from he and Kashmir. In past when some of these linesmen was shifted referred to Sher-e-Kashmir Due to the dearth of the permanent were seen hanging as a smoke-billowing Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), staff, this casual workforce carries out charred bodies on the high-tension wires Soura, for the advanced treatment. most of the maintenance work across and poles, it created hue and cry in the “In SKIMS, doctors sounded very dread- the valley. valley. ful to me,” Khan recalls. “They said the In the line of duty, when some of them The recurrent ruckus forced the former APRIL 05 – APRIL 11, 2021 WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE KARGIL 05 state government to send a detailed duty when he got a call from an inspec- done. But his case is only lingering. project report to New Delhi for setting tor saying he needs to fix the damaged “I was promised by the local executive up of the two National Power Training fuse of a transformer in the locality,” engineer that I would be appointed at Institutes in Jammu and Kashmir. recalls Sajid Ahmad, son of a daily-wage my father’s place on temporary basis,” But due to the paucity of funds, these PDD worker. he says. “But so far, nothing has been institutes could never shape up. This “Despite being warned by the locals, done.” has only made these PDD workers vul- the inspector instructed my father to On his part, the said executive engineer nerable to hazardous shocks. fix the transformer. As soon as he touched makes it curt: “Whosoever has been “While working in the field we’re not the transformer, he got electrocuted, negligent or is guilty, will be brought being provided any power-resisting fell down and died on spot.” to the fore and shall be treated accord- safety kit or any kind of life insurance,” After the accident, Sajad says, the ing to the law.” says Mushtaq Ahmad, a PDD casual inspector changed the timing of tripping But when contacted on this crucial and critical matter, wherein these workers are dying right under the nose of the department, Chief Engineer, PDD, Aijaz Dar excused himself for “I do not have any detailed information about it”. Amid all these, many of these casual labours—serving the department from more than two decades now—are await- ing salaries and regularisation. “Our salaries are pending since months,” says a PDD worker. “We’re now tired of going to offices and protesting for our monthly dues. If other government employees who work within a limited time slot can get sala- ries on time, why can’t we, even after working 24/7?” To back these “unsung heroes”, K- netizens have lately started throwing their weight behind them. And yet the apathy refuses to die down on the real world. “We too have families,” says Warid Ahmad, who heads North Kashmir-based PDD casual labourer camp. “We may be forced to quit if not paid our dues.” The PDD bosses, however, say there’s no such case of pending salaries and the labourers enlisted with them are given the monthly salary on time. Meanwhile, at his home, Nazir Khan narrates how his life-changing injury made him bedridden in the hospital for almost a year. “I did not have enough money to pay the hospital bills,” he says. “The local dailywage workers had to raise funds to clear my bills.” The favour, however, deeply distressed the self-made Khan who had stepped into his late father’s shoes quite early in his life. As a breadwinner, he would always labourer. details and further shocked the family. fight from the front for his family. “Only the senior officials and the peo- Later, an FIR was lodged in the local “But now,” he breaks down, “I’m ple working in towns and cities are police station, but Sajad says, it was handicapped and cannot go to the field provided the same. While leaving for fabricated and totally vague. work or earn some other livelihood.” work we are never certain about our “The FIR copy reads that there was He now looks after paperwork in his safe return to home.” some earth wire problem in the trans- office, but rues the job hasn’t paid him In the last one decade, more than 400 former,” the son of the PDD worker says. a penny from last nine months. PDD workers have reportedly died in “The FIR had not stated the actual cause “I’ve nothing to feed myself and my Jammu and Kashmir, while among the that transformer had the damaged fuse.” family,” Khan laments. “I had never 700 injured workers, many have been Almost five months later, Sajid is still imagined this shocking life for my fam- rendered crippled for life. making endless trips to the government ily. This helplessness kills me every day “My father had just come home from offices to get his father’s documents now.” FP K 06 CULTURE WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 05 – APRIL 11, 2021 Graveyard Glory While tulips have taken center-stage in Kashmir, it is the Daffodil that announces the arrival of spring for the locals. A common sight in Kashmir’s graveyards, Mazaar-posh, or Yemberzal is not only part of local literature, but symbolises love, longing and resurrection. By Nasir Yousufi URROUNDED BY A NUMBER surroundings with sensuous aroma. grow in abundance. The graveyard is of myths, the Daffodil Narcissus The flower is among the first to bloom a one such place, where the symbolic Poeticus, knows as Nargis in in early spring, announcing the depar- yemberzal can be seen blooming as Sthe sub-continent, has tradi- ture of winter, and the onset of bahaar. early as February, thus earning an tional and cultural significance for the Though the valley of Kashmir is a epithet ‘Mazar Posh’. people in Kashmir. Known locally as home to rich flora and fauna, flowers Daffodils find a mention in writings Yemberzal, the white petalled beauty like Nargis bear a special significance dating back as early as 371– 287 BC.