Srinagar, Sep 18, KNT: Nearly two years after Mushtaq Ahmad Guroo was elected from Chanapora Assembly constituency of Srinagar, a review of publicly documented activities shows that the MLA has participated in official meetings, inspections and visits to several localities, but the record also raises a broader constituency-level question: how widely has his direct engagement extended across the large urban seat he represents?

Guroo was elected from the 23-Chanapora constituency in October 2024, defeating his nearest rival Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari.

His first publicly documented constituency engagement after the election came in late October 2024, when he chaired an introductory-cum-review meeting with district administration and departmental officers and discussed development and public-service issues, including healthcare facilities in Chanapora. He subsequently accompanied Health Minister Sakeena Itoo during her extensive May 2025 tour of the constituency, which covered Chanapora, Nowgam, Rawalpora, Wanbal, Hyderpora and Sanat Nagar.

In July 2025, Guroo visited Yayil Rawalpora in connection with a longstanding drainage problem. The report of the visit stated that it was his third visit to the site and that the matter had been taken up with the Srinagar Municipal Corporation’s Drainage Division.

In October 2025, he accompanied Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary during an inspection of development projects in Chanapora, including the Community Centre at Hyderpora, Marriage Hall at Haranbal Natipora, Bailey Bridge project at Chanapora and widening of the Rawalpora-Mocho Road.

More recently, on August 20, 2026, Guroo was among the MLAs who accompanied Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during an early-morning review of development projects in Srinagar.

These records establish that the MLA has not been completely absent from public activity. But Chanapora is considerably larger than the handful of localities appearing in the publicly documented visits. The constituency encompasses a wide spread of neighbourhoods and residential pockets, and the limited geographical range visible in the available record raises questions about how regularly the MLA has personally reached out to voters across its different parts.

That question becomes more relevant in areas where basic civic problems remain unresolved. In Mehjoor Nagar, complaints have been raised over damaged roads, unmacadamized lanes and bylanes and the condition of the Mehjoor Nagar-Rambagh bund. People in the area have sought macadamization of key roads, including the Mehjoor Nagar-Natipora road and other connecting stretches.

Complaints have also been reported from Iqbal Colony-A in Mehjoor Nagar, where people questioned why some lanes had been macadamized while others remained unattended and called for the MLA to visit the locality and assess the situation personally.

The issue is not confined to one road. The continuing appearance of road-related works in government tender records for Natipora and Mehjoor Nagar indicates that several stretches still require intervention. The existence of tenders, however, does not by itself establish whether the works have subsequently been completed.

For people living in different pockets of Chanapora constituency, the measure of an elected representative is ultimately not the number of official meetings attended but whether the MLA is accessible, visits problem areas, follows up complaints and remains visible beyond a limited number of official programmes.

The available record does show Mushtaq Guroo visiting and participating in development-related activities. What remains less clear is the extent of his independent, regular and geographically broad engagement with the voters of Chanapora.

Nearly two years into his tenure, that leaves a simple constituency-level question for the MLA: of the many neighbourhoods, roads, lanes and bylanes that make up Chanapora, how many has he personally visited, how many grievances has he followed up, and how many of those issues have actually been resolved? [KNT]

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