Every morning Irshad Ahmad, 32, a resident of Kakapora in Pulwama dusts his bicycle and sets out for Ookhu – a village almost 2 km from his home. He works there at a unit that makes pencil slates.
Ookhu is located along the bank of Jhelum. The houses are surrounded by band-saw mills. Unlike other villages in the neighbourhood, Ookhu has a distinction: It is known as ‘pencil village’. Almost 250 households live in this dusky village.
Ahmad works there till 5 in the evening and returns home happy. “I have been working here for the last 5 years.”
There are around 3 units in this small village that manufactures slates the raw material for pencil manufacturing.
THE OLDEST UNIT
Jhelum Agro Industries is one among the three units that produces the raw material. It was the first one to be established in 2013. Before this, the unit used to process raw material in the form of logs and send it to Jammu and Chandigarh.
“We used to send logs to Hindustan Pencils,” said Manzoor Ahmad Allaie, the promoter of the Jhelum Agro Industries.
Allaie’s rise has an interesting story. Born to a timber loader Abdul Azaiz, Allie, 44, was watching his father work overtime to manage his family comprising two sons and a daughter. In 1996, Manzoor did his matriculation and a year later when the family sold a small piece of land for Rs 75,000, Manzoor insisted that the family will put up a small bandsaw unit.
Bu hikaye Kashmir Life dergisinin November 07, 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Kashmir Life dergisinin November 07, 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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