Sopur, Jan 2: The people of this North Kashmir township are up in arms against the Power Development Department for resorting to frequent and unscheduled power cuts for past one month.
 Reeling under darkness, the region is witnessing massive protests and people have even resorted to shutdowns to vent their anger against the Department.
 “We are experiencing curtailments for more than 12 hours daily,” said President of Sopur Traders Federation, Ghulam Nabi Khan.” The claims of government of ensuring better power supply proved to be hoax,” he added.
 Majority of villages in Rafiabad, Langate, Handwara, Lolab, Kupwara, Uri and Pattan complained of experiencing nights without electricity.
 “We voted for basic amenities, but government has failed us,” said Nisar Ahmed of Ladoora Rafiabad.
 MLA Langate, Er. Rashid threatened to launch civil disobedience if the situation persists in area.
 “We would stop to pay electricity tariff if the situation continues,” he said.
 Echoing same views MLA Lolab, Abdul Haq Khan said he would stage protests with public on Monday against the frequent power curtailments in his constituency. “There is no power and ration here,” he added.
 PDD officials told Greater Kashmir that power crisis in Varmul, Bandipora and Kupwara districts have precipitated, forcing them to resort to additional curtailments as the region is alone affected by shutdown of LJHP for maintenance purposes, as the transmission line cannot bring more than 160 MW electricity.
 “We would cater several areas from LJHP directly but we have to depend on Srinagar alone,” they said, adding that the transmission line from Srinagar can only transmit 160 MW electricity whereas need is 260-270 MW.
 “We cannot bring more than 160 MW as it causes overloading,” they further disclosed.
 According to officials due to crisis, they have resorted to additional curtailments in majority of areas with two hour on and one hour off routine schedule.
 “This crisis would continue and load has to regulate by curtailments,” he further added.
 Deputy commissioner varmul, Lateef-ul-Zaman Deva said that he had taken up the  matter with government.
 “The loss due to LJHP shutdown should have been uniformly distributed in valley, and not in this region alone,” he further added.
 When contacted chief engineer PDD, Mushtaq Ahmed shah said that supply in majority areas few pockets of Bandipora and Sopur was normal
 “We are commission grid station to over come this problem and from yesterday the problem has been sorted out in majority of areas,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST