Despite promises, civil court at Chowari still a pipe dream

Rajiv Mahajan

NURPUR, FEBRUARY 21

Residents of Bhatiyat in Chamba district are feeling neglected as their demand for a civil court has not been met. The issue was also raised during the Virbhadra Singh government (2003-07).

Resentment is brewing among people, who have to travel around 130 km to reach Dalhousie for civil court works.

With the efforts of former MLA Kuldeep Pathania a revenue subdivision was established at Bhatiyat with its headquarters at Chowari in 1997. He also tried for a civil court here and a High Court team inspected the site.

Resentment brewing

• Resentment is brewing among people, who have to travel around 130 km to reach Dalhousie for civil court works.
• With the efforts of former MLA Kuldeep Pathania, a revenue subdivision was established at Bhatiyat with its headquarters at Chowari in 1997. He also tried for a civil court here and a High Court team inspected the site.

Enquiries reveal that the proposal was shelved due to opposition from some residents of Dalhousie. “The present government has opened a civil court at Tissa in Churah in 2019, ignoring Bhatiyat,” alleged Pathania.

Talking to The Tribune, Pathania said that the successive governments had ignored the interests of Bhatiyat and the local BJP MLA also failed to take up the issue with the government.

Underlining the urgent need to set up a civil court at Chowari, Pathania said litigants from Chowari, Sihunta and Kakira face hardships. He appealed to the Jai Ram government to consider the demand urgently.

Abhinav Sondhi and Balwinder Kumar, president and general secretary of the Social Welfare Committee, Chowari, said Bhatiyat limits start from Hatli on the one side and Nainikhud on the other with a tough topography. Travelling to Dalhousie was cumbersome. They pleaded that former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had announced that his government would consider a circuit court of Chief Judicial Magistrate at Chowari but the announcement had never taken shape.