Editorial | Stop Handwara vs Kupwara Politics, Finish GMC

Many in Kupwara had greeted GMC announced for Chogal initially as a step long awaited. Subsequently, when the project was relocated to Handwara, controversy and arguments erupted. Kupwara leaders contended that it was not equitable to relocate it, while others in Handwara contended their town was the appropriate choice since it was central and already has a district hospital. Years have passed in this back-and-forth, and the result is that neither Kupwara nor Handwara has received a functioning medical college. The fight over location has left the people with nothing but skeletal structures.

Regardless of whether the college stands in Handwara or Kupwara, the fact remains that Kupwara district desperately needs such an institution. The Handwara district hospital is the only large facility, and it is overburdened far beyond its limit. Patients from Karnah, Tangdhar, Machil, and other far-flung belts have to encounter huge challenges when they are referred to Baramulla or Srinagar. These long distances prove to be deadly in case of emergency. GMC was supposed to alter this reality by giving specialized treatment and medical education to the district. This is the larger picture which politics has relegated to the backburner.

Anyone who goes to the GMC Handwara site today notices nothing but naked construction bars where buildings are supposed to rise. No hospital block, no labs, no lecture theaters, no hostel only the beginnings of what could have been a lifeline for thousands. Without fittings, interiors, and utilities, the site amounts to very little, a recipe for disappointment. For those patients who had hoped for improved healthcare and for would-be students of medicine who aspire to study locally, this is not progress it is postponement masquerading as politics.

All government projects are attached to a timeline. If those timelines are breached, it is not a technical failure it is a promise broken to the people. Kupwara district has already delayed long enough. Deadlines should mean that within a specified time, doctors will be operating on patients and classes will be in session. GMC cannot be stuck at skeletal bars while deadlines are being pushed year after year.

The Handwara vs Kupwara controversy needs to stop. The location has already been settled at Handwara, and more arguments only take away from the pressing necessity to complete the task. Health is not a matter of political mileage—it is a matter of lives. The longer this matter is prolonged through debates, the longer the people in Kupwara district will be denied facilities they so desperately require.

First, the government should provide an open status report, highlighting clearly what has been done and what is pending. Second, the work on the project should be overseen by a separate committee of doctors, engineers, and representatives to keep it accountable. Third, equipment, manpower, and funding should be sanctioned on priority to complete the hospital block and academic infrastructure. First and foremost, politicians of all parties should put aside their battle about Handwara against Kupwara and come together in demanding completion.

Regular citizens don’t care about the political war of position. Their sole requirement is that GMC must be completed and operationalized at the earliest. Patients need a hospital where they can get specialists and emergency services. Students need classrooms, labs, and hostels. Families need a stop to long and expensive trips to Srinagar for treatment. These are needs that are earnest and immediate differing from the political debate.

The GMC project was approved to benefit the residents of Kupwara district, not to be a political war zone between Kupwara and Handwara. Decades have been lost in disputes, while there only remain skeletal bars of construction at the place. The attention has to be diverted from politics to development. Let the project be completed in Handwara, to where it has already been relocated, and let the people at last enjoy that which was promised. Health and education cannot afford to wait for politics to be sorted out they cry out for action today.