Says People Suffering Due To Curtailment Of Ration, Pesky Water, Electricity Supply, Price Rise
Srinagar, Jan 20 (GNS): The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Wednesday expressed dismay over the paucity of essentials in Kashmir Division saying the administration seems to have turned blind eye to the woes of people.
In a Joint statement Party Senior leader Abdul Rahim Rather and State women’s wing President Shameema Firdous said that there was a crisis like situation in Kashmir province due to unavailability of the basic essentials and that the administration has failed to live up to its obligation of ensuring people all basic civic amenities and essentials.
The leaders said the curtailment of the monthly ration to APL and BPL families has compounded the woes of people across Jammu and Kashmir in general but the people of Kashmir in particular due to the ongoing harsh winter season. “Administration has also failed to have an anticipatory price control mechanism in its strategy to deal with the exorbitant price rise during the winter months. The absence of administration on ground has emboldened the willfulness of traders and black marketers. Unfortunately, the flying squads of the CAPD department are also not visible on ground. The undergoing inflation of food, vegetables, and other items has inadvertently hit the pockets of the lower middle class and middle class evenly. We expect the administration to wake from the slumber and ensure that people don’t have to suffer any further. It is the primary duty of the administration to check price rise. In addition to that the divisional and the district administration should ensure sufficient stocks of all essentials including LPG, Kerosene at all district head quarters. Special teams should be deputed to snowbound far-flung areas across Kashmir division to review the stock situation there,” they said.
Drawing the attention of the administration towards the plight of people due to the prolonged and unscheduled power cuts, the leaders said that the power infrastructure which was disturbed due to weather vagary continues to be in shambles at various places particularly in far-flung areas of north, central and south Kashmir. “We had made repeated pleas to the administration to come up with a transformer bank at all district headquarters so that the people don’t have to suffer on account of inordinate delays in the restoration of their defunct transformers during winter months. The demand however met with cold shoulders. There are areas in the upper reaches including the central Kashmir Kandi belt where entire localities and hamlets are still reeling under darkness. Local district administration seems to have turned volte face to their woes. An early restoration of the electricity in the far-flung areas would also be appreciated. We anticipate an early action by divisional administration in this regard.”
The leaders also necessitated an audit of the primary, secondary and tertiary health care centers across Kashmir Division to investigate into the complaints about the absence of medics and other Para medical staff from their duties. “We have been receiving complaints that water filtration and pump stations in rural areas have also been left unmanned. In addition to that the slush that has accumulated at such stations needs to be removed as soon as possible to ensure steady supply of water to the surrounding catchment areas,” they said.
Rather and Shameema Firdous also impressed upon the divisional administration to ensure speedy disbursement of enhanced compensation to snowfall affected people on immediate basis. They also asked the divisional administration to come up with an enhanced the relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation package for fire affected families. (GNS)
