Ropeway would render thousands of labourers jobless, reconsider decision: Mehbooba

Former J&K chief minister and president of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti, on Saturday, said that “pilgrimages should not be converted into places of tourism” and that “any move to create ropeway project at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi cave shrine from Tarakote Marg to Sanjichhat would render thousands of labourers jobless”.
She requested lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha to reconsider the decision, which, she said, “if implemented, it would severely hit thousands of labourers, who rely upon the pilgrimage for their livelihood”.
According to an estimate over 12,000 ponywallas, pithuwallas and palanquin owners earn their livelihood by ferrying pilgrims to Bhawan and back to Katra.
Mehbooba also demanded immediate withdrawal of an FIR against anti-ropeway protesters over the recent violence in Katra town.
On November 18, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine board had announced implementation of the long-awaited ropeway project to facilitate a safer and faster journey for the pilgrims.
“Ropeway will create big problems for those dependent on the pilgrimage, like shopkeepers and labourers, who earn their livelihood from the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage. The government should think over it. It’s a pilgrimage and it should be treated like a pilgrimage, not as a place of tourism. I appeal to LG Manoj Sinha to reconsider his decision. For tourism, there are many areas in J&K,” she told mediapersons during her visit to Katra to meet the protesters that included Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Jamwal.
“Shri Mata Vaishno Devi is a place of reverence where devotees come with a pure heart and complete faith to seek blessings of the Mata. Construction of the ropeway will not only bypass three important places of worship enroute to the shrine via traditional route but also snatch the livelihood of thousands of locals,” she said.
“J&K is already grappling with the country’s highest unemployment rate as government jobs are nowhere and private investment is not coming and this move render thousands of labourers jobless”, she added.
“Privatisation requires electricity. Though Jammu and Kashmir generates electricity, it is given free of cost to some states, and we have nothing for ourselves. People who earn their livelihood by means of labour work with the blessings of the Mata will lose the opportunity after the ropeway’s construction,” she said.
“The lieutenant governor should reconsider the decision and take the livelihood of stakeholders into account before starting work on the ropeway, which can be shifted somewhere else but not here,” she said.
On November 25, Katra SHO Chaman Gorkha was injured and the windshield of a CRPF truck was damaged as protests against proposed Vaishno Devi ropeway project had turned violent in Katra.