Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 14: CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami has said that all claims made by the Government on their alertness have been exposed with few inches of snow causing massive power breakdown, road blockades, scarcity of ration, water-logging and other difficulties faced by the people.
“Despite the prediction by the Meteorological Department, State administration was ill-prepared for the snowfall. Although snowfall is not something new to the State given its climatic conditions and topography, the administration seems resisting change in its rusty work culture. With a few inches of snow the entire administration comes to a grinding halt which is reflective of a dire need for strengthening of disaster preparedness in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said in a statement, issued here today.
“Snow is yet to be cleared on several roads in rural areas across the Valley resulting in tremendous hardship to the general public. Due to the closure of 300-kilometers long Srinagar-Jammu national highway for the last three days, hundreds of passengers, including children and women, are stranded in Jammu. The airfares have sky rocketed due to the closure of the highway but the Government is least bothered,” he said and appealed the higher-ups in administration to ensure better coordination between various departments especially those providing essential services.
Tarigami stressed the Government must ensure that there was no chaos on account of scarcity of essential commodities, including LPG, kerosene oil and sugar and emergency services should be monitored and damaged power distribution lines be immediately repaired.
Referring to the problems caused to the people by the latest snowfall resulting in massive power breakdown which has plunged the valley, especially remote areas in south Kashmir, into total darkness, he asked the administration to expedite the restoration of power supply as people have been braving biting cold.
“The faulty policy of PDD for the damages of electricity transformers is the reason for the mess. The department has never bothered to open workshops at district level to repair the damaged transformers due to which these have to be sent to the Central workshops where it takes weeks,” he explained.