After electricity, water crisis in Valley

Winter woes do not seem to end for the people of Kashmir. No sooner did people get slight relief from long powers cuts, people are faced with tremendous water shortage in almost all parts of the valley.The minus day and night temperatures without any sunshine have given way to persistent freezing. As the day temperatures fail to rise, no melting of snow or water bodies is taking place. The sub zero day temperatures have frozen taps and water supply pipes. This has resulted in serious water shortage in most parts of the valley. There is no water supply to homes or even offices.

“The water supply pipes to our homes are completely jammed and frozen.  We have no water supply inside the house,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, from Raj Bagh.  “I filled the tank by carrying water in buckets from lawn tap.”

The problem is grave in upper town where water supply is facilitated commonly by using water pumps.“Even though we receive water supply to the main reservoir but could not pump water into the house as water pump has jammed due to freezing temperatures,” said Naseema Begum. The main water supply pipes in some areas have also wedged.

Following snowfall across Kashmir on Saturday, the valley loomed under unrelenting minus temperatures. The maximum temperature recorded at 11.30 a.m today was minus 1.4  Celsius while minimum went down to minus 3.8 degree. There has been no relief from cold for the past six days. The ongoing chillai kalaan will be over after 18 days, on January 31.

“I have never lived a more severe winter. We not only have to deal with freezing cold but problems of water and electricity as well,” adds Naseema.

An official at the MeT department said that there is no abnormality in the weather this year. “Kashmir has experienced much lower temperatures than what we are facing. The reason why we are facing more problems is because there is no sunshine,” official revealed.

In view of the forecast of more snowfall on January 15 and 16, people are  fearful of more horrifying conditions. Valleyites are keeping a stock of essential commodities including food and milk to avoid inconveniences.

DDC tours Srinagar city

District Development Commissioner (DDC), Srinagar, Baseer Ahmad Khan, today conducted an extensive tour of Srinagar city and took stock of the various development schemes and reviewed steps for removing snow from the main city roads especially the National Highway and other busy roads.

Besides getting feedback from various City Hospitals of providing medical facilities to the patients, the District Development Commissioner also reviewed the steps taken by the Mechanical department for lifting snow from the other towns of the Valley, restoration of damaged grid stations, electricity, water supply and also availability of the essential commodities.

The District Development Commissioner was accompanied by the Superintending Engineer Circular Road, Mohammad Amin Taba, Chief Medical Officer, Srinagar, Dr. Farooq Ahmad, Joint Director CA&PD, Bashir Ahmad, Joint Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Fayaz Bala, Executive Engineers of R&B, PHE, Mechanical, Electricity, Drainage and other concerned officers.

Khan during his whirlwind tour visited Gousia Hospital, Khanyar and inspected various units/wards and interacted with patients about the facilities and medicines being provided to them.

He also visited Rainawari and Lal Ded Hospitals and inspected various wards, OPD, Blood Banks, Emergency Wards and paid a surprise visit to administrative blocks and checked the attendance of the doctors, paramedical staff and other concerned officials.

The District Development Commissioner during his visit to Rainawari Hospital interacted with various Indoor Patients and enquired about the medical facilities being provided to them by the Hospital. He inspected various wards including Recovery Ward, Gynae and Obst and CT Scan etc.

Later, Khan also made surprise visit to Lal Ded Hospital. During inspection, he found many employees absent from duty and on spot directed the Medical Superintendent of the Hospital to place them immediately under suspension.

Khan also asked the Chief Medical Officer to take strict action against those employees who will fail to fulfill their duties in providing medical facilities to the needy one. He also asked the Chief Medical Officer to make regular checks of Primary Health Centres working in peripheries so that the over burden of reference cases may be reduced to city hospitals.

Earlier, the District Development Commissioner visited historical Jamia Masjid in downtown and took a round of the mosque.

On the occasion, he directed the R&B officers for immediately lifting snow from the complex to facilitate the common people for offering prayers. He also directed the CA&PD officers to conduct routine market checking so that the people may not feel any kind of inconvenience in getting the essentials like Gas, ration, k.oil, sugar etc.

On the occasion, a large number of locals met the District Development Commissioner and put forth some suggestions for beautification of the historical Jamia Masjid.

Khan assured them that necessary steps would be taken in this behalf.

Power Crisis in Jammu

With electricity continues to play hide and seek, there seems to be no end to the power crisis which have gripped the Jammu region this summer in general and during the on going monsoon in particular, adding to the woes of the common man to a great extent.

Though the increasing power crisis including long duration unscheduled curtailments, low voltage and fluctuation have made the life of people miserable throughout the Jammu region, the authorities at the helm of affairs are sleeping over the issue resulting into brewing resentment among the masses against the Department.

Despite the wide spread protests and demonstrations by people in various areas of city and its outskirts against the failure of the Power Development Department to maintain the proper supply of the electricity, the Department has failed to solve the problem in real sense.

The power scenario is so worst in the region that the people having the special lines have also to bear its brunt as the electricity supply remains off on these lines too for hours together.

The residents of Vikram Chowk and surrounding areas held a massive demonstration at Vikram Chowk in protest against the unscheduled power cuts in the area this evening. The irate people of these localities including, men, women and children, came to streets and protested against the PDD’s callousness towards the consumers.

Vikram Singh a resident of the area said that in addition to routine power cuts, the people have been facing an unscheduled power cut from 9 pm to 12 pm daily. Moreover there is also low voltage and power fluctuation in the area.

The situation is in no way better in Janipur, New Plots, Roop Nagar, Patoli, Subash Nagar and other parts of the city where the people are facing the unscheduled power cuts and low voltage problem for over a fortnight now. Ramesh Kumar a resident of Patoli said that the problem is common in every Summer and the Government over the years has not paid any attention to over come it.

He accused the Department of having no concrete policy in dealing with the problem which the people of Jammu have been facing over a decade now. The wires and transformers are out dated and old resulting into the leakage and power loss, he said, adding that the Department did not pay any sincere attention to overcome the problem.

The situation is also worst in the localities of Bantalab, Gurah, Muthi, Barnai, Udaywala, Bohri, Barnai, Darmal, Gurah Keran, Patoli Brahmana, Nagbani and Damana, said Suraj Parkash Padha,ex Sarpanch Muthi.

He said that despite an assurance given by Additional Deputy Commissioner Jammu Sheetal Nanda to the protesting people of the area last month that the power problem will be solved within days, it worsened further since then.

He said that the low voltage and fluctuation besides burning down of power transformers has also damaged the electric gadgets of the people. He said the problem is being faced mostly in the localities of Muthi and Barnai.

Padha alleged that being an important Department the PDD should have a separate Cabinet Minister to look into the problems of the masses properly. Since the Department lies with Chief Minister who is already pre-occupied with other affairs so he can’t pay proper attention to its functioning which is also one of the cause of the problem.

The people will be forced to come to streets again in case the authorities failed to solve the problem said, Mukesh Sharma a social activist from Muthi. He alleged that despite sending huge bills to consumers every month the PDD is unable to maintain the proper power supply.

He warned that the people will desist from paying power tariff in case the power supply is not improved immediately.