|| MOHAMMAD AFAAQ SAYEED
Great to know that Tossamaidan, a scenic pasture in the district Budgam of Kashmir is being vacated by Indian Army. Thanks to the outcry of civil society and everyone else. Tossamaidan has not been vacated yet but the state government has already started to prepare for its takeover. Tossamaidan Development Authority is being mulled to make the place a ‘tourist attraction’. Hypothesis: Tossamaidan is vacated by Indian army and is handed over to the state. Soon after its handover, convoys of politicians make a beeline to the area; announce ‘developmental’ schemes to earn brownie points People of Srinagar, Budgam and Baramullahave started to throng the place on Saturdays and Sundays. Some tourist cabs are also seen ferrying some early bird tourists. Everyone gets impressed by the virgin scenic beauty of Tossamaidan.
Tour operators have started to ask for the development of infrastructure in the Tossamaidan tourist resort. Government promptly chips in with TDA(Tossamaidan Development Authority). A blue eyed junior Bureaucrat is appointed as the CEO, TDA. He immediately starts the procedure of construction of ‘Office of the CEO, TDA’ at a place of his own liking. He feels like a king. Whole resort is now his fiefdom. Tenders for the ‘development’ of infrastructure in the resort are floated. Concrete Retention Walls, Chain Link Fencing, Concrete Embankments, Tiling of Path Ways, Construction of Rest Houses, Dak Bungalows, Cafeteria and Shelter Sheds are few of the works which TDA plans to undertake.
Local contractors who have connections withMantris stake claim to the allotment of works. Afterall, they ‘suffered’ a lot in the struggle to get the resort vacated. Area has become a busy and hot selling destination for land brokers from Budgam. Retired Engineers, Khilafwarzi Officers of Municipalities, Patwaris, Purchase Officers of Government Departments, Revenue Officials, Under Secretaries, every other Government employee who did not shop in the Sunday Market of Residency Road and those who do not know the bus fare between Lal Chowk and their native localities, along with their freshly graduated sons from abroad are planning big project. Hotels, Guest Houses and Tourist Huts, everything is being planned. Private land is in demand. Owing to its short supply, Government decides to lease out some Public land.
Cabinet accords approval to lease out Tossamaidan to businessmen for building much needed ‘Tourist Infrastructure’. Every minister, MLA and bureaucrat starts to ring the CEO, TDA on phone to inquire about his well being. CEO, TDA feels like being on top of the world. He has got contacts in every ministry and every department now. Government land gets distributed among the needy. Every minister gets his share. Bureaucrats were not that much lucky. Only those who had ‘Blue Eyes’ got their due. ‘Businessmen’ also got their land only after the local MLA, concerned ministers and of course the CEO all were supplied with bundles of freshly withdrawn currency notes printed with Gandhi in red. Bihari Laborers, Bengali Masons, Punjabi Carpenters and Kashmiri Woodcutters have all migrated to Tossamaidan. JCBs and Caterpillar bull dozers are in huge demand. Concrete Mixers are everywhere. Rates have shot up. Everything is expensive and in short supply.
Government contractors have managed to attract some restaurant owners to the place. Make shift restaurants have come up. Every transaction between Engineers and Contractors is now being done behind the tin sheeted walls of these restaurants. Kanti, Kebab, Nan andChai. That is the full and final Menu in these make shift restaurants. Retaining Walls casted in JK Cement have started to emerge. Concrete Columns, Beams, Pillars and Cantilevers are all around. Some are casted in JK Cement and some in Cement e’ Kashmir. Hotels are going up fast. Rest houses, Guest houses, Shop lines and Government offices are all visible now.
Cellular towers and ATMs are also coming up. Tossamaidan is fast developing into a typical Kashmiri Style Tourist Resort. Septic tanks and Soakage pits are making the earth beneath juicy. Tossamaidan at last has become another successful ‘Tourist Destination’ like Betaab Valley of Pahalgam and Drung of Tangmarg. Streams got concrete embankments, Walkways got red tiles, Trees got immortalized with rounded concrete platforms all around their bases.
Tossamaidan looks fabulous with Reds Greens, Browns and Blues everywhere. Colourful Tata Shakti GI roofs are dotting its skyline like Basant in Punjab with colourful kites in the sky all around during the spring season. Bhuj stoned, Fibre glassed, Mortar plastered and ACPed buildings make Tossamaidan a colorful marvel. Nature gets compelled to blend itself with this wonder. Tourists also get stunned. In all this developmental boom, Tossamaidan gets shunned. During nights Tossamaidan is often heard screaming, “Firdous ! Hammi Asto, Hammi Asto”.
