Power crisis leads to NH blockade

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Sept 5: The Jammu-Pathankot National Highway was today blocked for five hours as power shortage sparked protest in Samba .
Hundreds of locals from Keli Mandi area this morning assembled in Samba town and blocked the highway, thus disrupting the normal traffic.
The protestors were shouting slogans against the government and the district administration for unscheduled power cuts and long hours curtailment in scorching heat and humid conditions.
Protesting villagers alleged that some of the localities are being supplied power from Kathua district but due to overloading, there is no continuous electricity supply in the area.
Meanwhile, the protestors shouted slogans and called PDP-BJP Government a total failure in addressing the grievances of people and providing them basic facilities.
There was a huge jam on National Highway and traffic was diverted via border road. Despite the repeated pleas of the authorities the protestors relented to lift the Highway blockade and they were highly critical of the callousness of the Government towards the basic demands of the people.
They said that the people were facing severe power crisis and the Government has failed to take the steps to overcome the problem. The power problem has been a routine affair in the area and people have been left with no choice but to resort to agitation, said one of the protestors.
He said that the PDD is totally sleeping over the issue and the Department has failed to take the measures to better the power supply. The transformers are often developing snags due to overloading and it takes weeks together to replace or renovate them as there is no proper mechanism of repairing them with the Department.
The angry mob was also highly critical of the Government saying that no Minister bothered to visit the area to ascertain the problem. They said what can be more callousness of the Government that people are without power on the holy festival of Janamashtami. This is totally shameful, they added.
Later, the civil and police officers including DC Samba Sheetal Nanda and SSP Joginder Singh visited the spot and after their hard efforts they succeeded in motivating the mob to lift the blockade of NH. The DC assured them that she will take up the issue with concerning authorities and get the problem settled.

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