Pulwama\u2019s octogenarian voters share past experience, hope my vote brings back land retrieved by J&K Admin from us, says 80 year-old Ali Muhammad; Others hope for free power, better roads, employment for children<\/p>\n
Abid Bashir<\/p>\n
Pulwama, Sep 18 (KNO): Pulwama district of South Kashmir has seen a huge transition over the years. On Wednesday, serpentine lines were seen outside the majority of polling booth of this politically significant Assembly constituency of Kashmir. What caught the attention of the media were the Octogenarian people, some of them on wheel-chairs and some taking the help of sticks to reach out to the polling booths to cast votes.<\/p>\n
Talking to news agency\u2014Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Ghulam Muhammad, 82, said: \u201cI don\u2019t feel anything will happen. Nothing has happened in the past 50 years. Most of the winning candidates forget their voters. Only a few remember us. Very few fulfil promises. Many of them don’t allow us to enter their homes after they win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked despite having bitter experience that nothing happens, why he chose to vote this time too, he said maybe better sense prevails. \u201cWho knows my vote may change the heart of the candidate I have voted for. It\u2019s better to try luck, who knows whether I will be alive next time,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the candidate for whom I voted for wins, I will catch-hold of him tomorrow and ensure my children and grandchildren get jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife, Khadija, 80, however, differed with her husband. \u201cIt\u2019s true that nothing has happened in the past. But this time, it seems candidates in fray are sincere and won\u2019t forget the voters. Wasting a vote is not a good suggestion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another octogenarian Ali Muhammad Alai, a resident of Kakapora, Pulwama claimed that he had come to vote to get back his land retrieved by the J&K administration two years ago. \u201cWhen late Jawahar Lal Nehru visited Kakapora, Pulwama he asked us to use the land for growing paddy and other crops. \u201cIt was the Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad who installed a water pump shed in Kakapora for water supply to the fields. Ghulam Nabi Azad initiated the process of giving us ownership rights of the land under our use for decades but the process stalled after his government was toppled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alai said two years ago, LG Manoj Sinha led administration retrieved almost 30 acres of land from us and other villagers. \u201cWe protested but got lathis. Now I have voted to get back the land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A group of elderly people present on the occasion stated that sadak, pani and bijli will continue to remain issues to be resolved by the candidate who wins\u2014(KNO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pulwama’s octogenarian voters share past experience, hope my vote brings back land retrieved by J&K Admin from us, says 80 year-old Ali Muhammad; Others hope for free power, better roads, employment for children Abid Bashir Pulwama, Sep 18 (KNO): Pulwama district of South Kashmir has seen a huge transition over the years. On Wednesday, serpentine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kashmir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81682,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81680\/revisions\/81682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}