UMER MAQBOOL
Srinagar, Jan 8: Valleyities continued to face immense hardships for the third consecutive day Sunday as electricity, water and other essential supplies were missing in wake of a few inches of snowfall since Friday evening.
 A few areas of old city and uptown received a few shots of electricity barely for a few minutes, while the junior power minister Shabbir Ahmad Khan made repeated claims about electricity being restored in the Valley.
 “Power supply has been restored in most of the areas,” Khan told Greater Kashmir on phone from Rajouri.
 The power crisis worsened on Friday after the 220 KV-Kishanpur-Pampore and 400 KV Kishanpur-Wagoora transmission lines were snapped on other side of Jawhar Tunnel due to snowfall.  Against the required 950 MW of electric power being supplied to the valley, the availability this time is pegged at 120-150 MW. Among the available power, 40-50 MW is being supplied to consumers while rest is being used for running essential services.
 The situation is terrible in Amira Kadal, Gaw Kadal, Mandir Bagh, Basant Bagh, Habba Kadal, Fateh Kadal, Zaina Kadal Lal Bazar, Soura, Baghat Barzulla, Haiderpora, Jawahar Nagar, Raj Bagh, and other parts of the city.
 “We completely fail to understand as to what the senior functionaries of Power Development Department, Public Health Engineering, concerned Ministers and Chief Minister discuss and deliberate during the snow preparedness meetings,” said Fayaz Ahmad of Gaw Kadal, adding that these “discussions prove futile” as the government completely fails to do anything substantial on ground, leaving the people in lurch.
 “If this was the outcome of such meetings, then government should stop befooling people by holding such meets and later using media to assure people of doing everything during the crisis,” he said adding the authorities should own the moral responsibility for the failures and tender apology to the people forthwith.
 Things are worse in hinterland. Even the district and sub district hospitals in south and north Kashmir are without electricity.
 According to the reports, snowfall has also damaged distribution lines in Rafiabad, Handwara, Kupwara, Tangmarg, Lolab and other remote areas in north Kashmir.
 Same reports about the damage to electric poles and lines were also received from Dooru and Kokernag area of Islambad (Ananntnag) and Kulgam district.

WATER SUPPLY DISRUPTED
 Water supply has also been disrupted in the Valley since Friday evening. Most of the areas in the city including South and West have been affected by dysfunctioning of Doodgangah filtration plant owing to non-availability of electricity.
 “We used ice for cooking as the taps ran dry from Friday night. The Water Supply Schemes should have power back up plan in case of any eventuality as the water crisis causes huge inconvenience for the people but government has also failed  on this front,”  said Muzaffar Ahmad of old city.
 Reports of shortage of potable water also poured in from north and south Kashmir.
 “We are without water supply for the past two days and have to fetch water from streams,” said Nazir Ahmad Mir of Baramulla town.
 Greater Kashmir correspondent from south Kashmir reported that authorities have failed to clear snow from most of the roads on outskirts and peripheral villages of Kulgam and Islamabad (Anantnag) districts.
 Reports also said that many villages are still cut off from the district headquarters in Kupwara due to non-clearance of snow from interiors.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST