Srinagar January 4: CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said that tall claims made by the administration on alertness have been exposed with snowfall especially in South Kashmir causing massive power breakdown, road blockades and scarcity of the essential commodities.
Despite the prediction by the Meteorological Department, administration was ill-prepared for the snowfall. Although snowfall is not something new to the region, the administration seems resisting change in its rusty work culture. With snowfall, the entire administration comes to a grinding halt which is reflective of a dire need for strengthening of disaster preparedness in the region.
Snow is yet to be cleared on several roads in rural areas across the valley resulting in tremendous hardship to the general public.
To meet the challenges, the administration need to ensure better coordination between various departments especially those providing essential services. The government must ensure that there was no chaos for scarcity of essential commodities including LPG, kerosene oil, ration and emergency services should be monitored and damaged power distribution lines immediately repaired.
The snowfall has resulted in massive power breakdown which has plunged the valley, especially remote areas in south Kashmir into darkness.
The CPI(M) leader has asked the administration to expedite the restoration of power supply as people have been braving biting cold.
Power Development Department (PDD) has failed to create a buffer stock of electricity transformers to address the situation surfaced due to damaged transformers. The transformers, installed in every neighborhood develop technical snags and the consumers are left helpless in darkness and freezing cold till the process of lifting, repairing and re-installing a faulty transformer is completed in weeks together.
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 be to sent to the central workshops where it takes weeks. Earlier in some cases, the department would send the damaged transformers to private workshops, but that process has also been stopped as government has not cleared the previous payments to them.