Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Dec 7: Residents of village Barmota and adjoining areas in Tehsil Bani of district Kathua, today staged a massive protest against the Government for not sanctioning a Fire Station in the area after three houses were completely turned into ashes at the village last night.
The residents of village Barmota near Bani, said that an incident occured last night in which three houses were gutted due to high voltage of electric supply. The short circuit took place in a house and it caught fire> With this adjoining two houses, were also caught in flames and property worth crores of rupees was turned into ashes.
The three houses of Mohd Farooq and Mohd Shabir, both sons of Mohd Sultan Batt, Sarpanch Panchayat Barmota were totally gutted in fire. The families have lost property worth lakhs besides important documents also burnt and nothing could be saved except only a cow which was in reach.
Sapranch Barmota, Mohd Sultan, whose house was also gutted, said that this was not the first incident in the village as before this, several such incidents were reported but the authorities had not taken a serious note of it.
In the past, the matter was also taken up with the concerned officials but nothing has been done till date and one more such incident was reported last night due to callous attitude adopted by the Power officials. High voltage of power supply resulted into the incident and damage to the electronic gadgets of the public.
The Sarpanch informed that this is the 4th such incident in Bani Tehsil. He appealed to the government to establish a Fire Services Station in Bani Tehsil at the earliest to provide some relief to the people in future. He also appealed to the government to provide adequate compensation to the fire affected victims as it was sheer negligence on the part of PDD officials.
The protesting people later submitted a memorandum to SDM Bani for the Lt Governor to sanction a Fire Station at Bani tehsil headquarters. They said that many such incidents took place at Bani, Taggar, Loang and other places. Property worth lakhs of people was damaged. The houses in the area are often made up of wood. The LG’s administration must sanction a Fire Station at Bani Tehsil, they demanded.
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