Ignored by govt, Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch village pools funds for new playground

The land, situated at an altitude of 4,000 feet above sea level, belongs to one Mohammad Shabir, who used to grow maize there and also worked as a labourer. “Residents have decided to pay him Rs 1 lakh a year,” Kalai village sarpanch Faroz un Nisa said. Faroz, a retired government school teacher, is among those who led the efforts for the development of the ground.

The residents have spent Rs 25 lakh on the sports ground, where people from Kalai and adjacent villages have already held a cricket tournament this year. Some dedicated cricket fans came together to set up a sound system to run live commentary during matches. More work is set to be undertaken at the site to expand the ground and create a multi-sport facility.

Yasir, a contractor who helped set up the ground’s sound system apart from contributing monetarily, said Kalai had a large number of educated people who were unemployed.

“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” he said, reflecting on how important the ground is for the people of the village. Residents worried that frustration from continued unemployment could manifest in dangerous ways, and said this ground goes a long way in keeping such people engaged – whether it is in playing sport, organising, or even just watching.

Yasir has an MA in Economics as well as an M.Ed. However, after years of trying to get a government job, he gave up in 2021 and became a contractor.

“You know the state of affairs in the J&K Subordinate Services Board. First they take years in initiating the recruitment process, and whenever they do, the results get cancelled or the vacancies are withdrawn,” he said.

Kalai has a population of around 10,000 people, and the ground will cater not just to them, but also to people in nearby panchayats like Shindra Upper and Shindra Lower (population of 10,000), Charoon (population of 5,000), and Khanetar (population of 10,000), said Wahid Iqbal, a member of Kalai Panchayat.

The sports ground has come up at a time when Poonch, and the adjoining district of Rajouri have been seeing a spurt in militant violence and attempts by outfits to revive militancy in the area.

Since the beginning of this year, J&K police and security forces have killed 27 militants, both along the LoC and in the hinterland, with 16 soldiers also dying in encounters. Militants have also killed seven civilians in these two districts during this period.

Moreover, an Indian Express investigation earlier this year showed that the use of narcotics in J&K had stretched the public health system to its limits and posed unprecedented challenges to security agencies. In many cases, the drug trade and terror networks run parallel to each other, and often intersect, the investigation had found.

Kalai has a storied history in resisting militancy. During militancy’s peak between the mid-1990s and 2003-04, militants used to visit the village seeking shelter and food. However, according to residents, villagers refused the militants’ demands and were beaten and even killed for it. Nearly half a dozen people have been killed in the village during that period, they said, but militants never managed to get a foothold there.

Javed Iqbal, a resident of Kalai and a food safety officer in the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department, led one of the cricket teams participating in the tournament held at the new ground. He said there was great excitement about the ground because before this, people had to travel around 20-25 km to Poonch town to get access to one.

There is another ground in Chandak, just around 10 km from the Poonch-Surankote national highway, but it has been occupied by security forces since the mid-1990s. Ever since then, people in Kalai and nearby villages have been asking the administration to construct a ground that they can use.

“Every time we approached senior officers in the administration, they told us to identify some government land in the area,” said panchayat member Wahid Iqbal. However, there was no vacant government land available. Also, the administration was not willing to spend funds for setting up a sports facility on  privately owned land until its ownership was transferred to the state, he said, adding that this condition was not acceptable to villagers who had only small landholdings. This stalemate resulted in years going by without any government action on the matter.

In the meantime, Senior Superintendent of Police Irshad Ahmed, who regularly made trips from Jammu to his ancestral home in Kalai, started discussing the need for a ground with other government employees from the village, saying it would help keep the youth away from dangerous habits.

The people he talked to, including Dr Rafiq Anjum, a professor at Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, former Kalai sarpanch Zaffar Ahmed, current sarpanch Feroz un Nisa, and contractor Abdul Hamid all agreed to contribute to build the sports complex. The current and former sarpanches played a major role in motivating other village residents to contribute in any manner they can towards the effort.

After everyone agreed on the plan in 2021, they started looking for suitable land in the village. Vast plots of land were not available in the mountainous area, and poor villagers with small landholdings were not inclined to let go of their land, which, in many cases, was their only source of livelihood.

Eventually, they found Mohammad Shabir, who agreed to have the sports complex on his land in exchange for Rs 1 lakh a year.

Iqbal, the Kalai Panchayat member, said two JCBs and around half a dozen dumpers were pressed into service for nearly two months to bring the uneven plot of land into its present condition.

SSP Ahmed said a lot of work remains to be done. “We plan to have the ground at 60-70 metres long on all sides. Presently, it is 35 metres on one side and 25 on the other side,” he said.

Contractor Yasir said there was still an opportunity for the administration to help. “It is fine if the administration helps even now. If not, we will contribute from our own pockets as nothing is more important than preventing our children from treading the wrong path,’’ he said.