Excelsior Correspondent
SHOPIAN, July 16: Hundreds of people took to the roads in this South Kashmir district today and staged massive protest against Power Development Department (PDD) for failing to repair the damaged transformers and restore electricity to the area.
Residents of Villages Zainapora, Chitragam, Cheremarg, Reshipora, Sofipora, Hydergund, Mujmarg and Awneera came on the roads early this morning and blocked all link roads and the main road connecting South Kashmir with Kulgam, Anantnag and Shopian districts.
The protesters of Chitragam said despite the holy month of Ramzan the PDD has failed to repair the transformer which had developed a technical snag two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, residents of Zainapora, Cheremarg, Reshipora, Sofipora, Hydergund, Mujmarg and Awneera also staged protests against the PDD for their failure to supply sufficient power in metered areas.
The residents including the students and traders alleged that the frequent, long and unscheduled power cuts subject them to immense inconvenience.
The business community said it has suffered heavy losses in business due to poor power supply. “Despite paying fat electricity bills in time, PDD Zainapora is not providing continuous power supply in the area owing to huge loss to our business due to regular power cuts,” Ashraf Ahmad Wani, a businessman said.
Muzaffar Matto, Chief Engineer PDD, refuted the allegation leveled against his department by the residents of Zainapora and its adjacent villages. “In rural areas, we supply minimum 17 hours of electricity and 20 hours in urban areas.”
But he said that the transformers damaged in the area will be repaired swiftly and will be installed to the concerned villages as soon as possible. “The damaged transformers would have taken some time in repairing, I will look into the matter,” Matoo said.
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