This is the second article in a four-part reportage series from Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir. You can read the first article here. The other articles will follow. Kamach (Kishtwar): In 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir administration was awarded by the Government of India for providing electricity ahead of the deadline to all the villages under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar’ scheme.But for some 200 poor inhabitants of about 35 households in Kamach, a remote hamlet in Chatroo tehsil of Kishtwar district which is inaccessible by road, the award is a cruel joke as electricity continues to remain a distant dream.Residential houses in Kamach village are scattered on steep hills of Kishtwar district in Jammu division bordering Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Photo: Jehangir Ali.Meenu Kumari, Sarpanch of Chingam-C Panchayat in Chatroo, said that there are about 50 houses in Kamach hamlet, which lack access to electricity. She said that a proposal has been included in the development works that are planned to be taken up in the village through Panchayat Raj institutions this year.“We are going to set up poles and other infrastructure in Kamach and Habalwar hamlets which don’t have electricity yet,” said Kumari, mother of two kids.“The proposal has been approved and the work is expected to start very soon,” she added.Chatroo is the last tehsil in the high mountains that separate Kishtwar district in Jammu division from Anantnag in Kashmir. Chenab River gathers strength while passing through Kishtwar, starting from Chatroo and, according to one assessment, the river can produce up to 8000 MW of clean electricity in Kishtwar alone.Kamach village lacks access to taped drinking water and residents are dependent on a water stream flowing down the hill to meet their daily needs. Photo: Jehangir Ali.Scattered on the steep slopes of a mountain which has a thick vegetative cover of pine trees and modest farms which sustain its villagers, Kamach can be reached from Watsar village through a moderately difficult, four-km trail that passes through a dense forest.The forest is home to the Himalayan brown bear and leopards.Lack of basic amenitiesThe hamlet also lacks any healthcare facility. In case of a medical emergency, the nearest help is an Ayush Wellness Centre where traditional medicine is used to treat patients. The centre is located in Thana village of Chingam, some 14 km away, half of which has to be covered on foot.A hospital is located some 30 kilometres away in Chatroo but finding transport to reach there is a herculean task. Although the villagers here have voter cards, they are too few to make any impact on the electoral battles.“Whenever there is a medical emergency, local men haul the patient on a cot and shoulder it down to the road. Thankfully, there have been no tragedies so far,” said Asa Ram, a resident of Kamach.Asa Ram, a poor farmer of Kamach, makes a living by working as a labourer and he also grows vegetables and corn at a small farm. Jehangir Ali.There are no educational institutions in the hamlet either. A few village kids use a steep mountain trail to reach a primary school, which is some five km away from Kamash in Zewal village.With no electricity, the villagers don’t have any television sets or heating appliances.“In today’s world, everything is dependent on electricity, but we are not among the fortunate ones,” said Shamo Nath, 45, a farmer whose two children are enrolled at the school in Zewal. He said that his hamlet also lacked mobile phone connectivity.Shamo Nath with his family at Kamach village of Kishtwar. Photo: Jehangir Ali.“To make a phone call, we have to go to another village two kilometres away,” he added.Imran Shah, a local journalist, said that there are at least a dozen habitations in remote areas of Kishtwar such as Bonzwa, Kithar, Goruv, Keeri and Jeedo among others which are without electricity.“The power projects in Kishtwar light up homes in the northern states of the country but our own villages have been denied their benefit,” Shah, who freelances with local and national media outlets, said.Sunil Kumar (25), a resident of Kamach who works as a delivery boy with a multinational online retailer in Jammu city, said that he visits his village once or twice in a month.“I get bored here easily because there is practically nothing to do. There are no shops, no roads and no mobile phone connectivity. I just want to run away as soon as possible,” Kumar, who was returning home for a break and guided this reporter to the village, said.Ashok Raina (28), who works with a private firm in Punjab, said that the villagers depend on the generosity of people in the adjoining Chingam village to keep their mobile phones charged. The torches of mobile phones serve as searchlights at the time of emergency.“When someone from the village goes to Chingam, you would see him returning with a pile of power banks. As it is cloudy most of the time, solar power doesn’t work. Many people burn wood to light up their homes at night,” he said.Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Chatroo, Showkat Hayat Mattoo, said that there are some hamlets in Chingam tehsil of Kishtwar which have not been connected with the power grid due to difficult topography.“It is a remote and difficult-to-reach area. For one hamlet, a solar power project is in the pipeline while two last hamlets in the tehsil are going to be connected to the electricity grid by the end of this year,” he said.Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Dr. Devansh Yadav claimed that Kamach is a seasonal habitation where solar lights have been provided to the residence by the district administration. “The residents of Kamach migrate from Khawra village during summers which is some 1.5 km away, hence it can’t be categorised as a village,” Dr Yadav said.However, Mohan Lal, 50, a resident of Kamach, said that the villagers, most of whom are small-time farmers or raise livestock for a living, spend most time of the year in the village.“We live here for eight to nine months in a year. Does it mean that it is a ‘seasonal habitation’? During winters, we are forced to leave because there is no road or electricity,” Lal, a farmer, said.Dr. Yadav, the Deputy Commissioner, said that the local Panchayat has proposed grid connectivity to the houses in Kamach this financial year, “Rs 4 lakh budget has been proposed by the Panchayat for providing electricity to the remaining villagers,” he said.A senior district administration official said that a proposal to procure 18 poles has been floated. “There are some 10-12 hamlets, including in the remote areas of Padder which are without electricity. However, all these villages will be electrified by the end of this year,” the official said.
