Srinagar, May 27: The residents of Rawalpora living on the west of the highway between Grid Station and Chanapora bridge have accused the government of failing to provide them proper civic amenities adding that the recent detection of IED in the area should serve an eye-opener as to how vulnerable the locals were to disasters.
 The residents said last week when an IED embedded car was spotted on the nearby highway, they couldn’t reach their homes and many had to spend night on the roads because a link to their colonies was inaccessible.
 The residents said the presence of a paramilitary CRPF camp in the area was hindering the smooth movement of civilians.
 “The CRPF camp has erected barricades on the service road along the highway thereby preventing us from plying on his vital road and so instead we have to take a long diversions,” said Muhammad Aijaz a local.
 He and many other locals said it was because of the barricades on the service road, parallel to the highway, that they couldn’t reach their homes on the fateful evening when the IED was detected.
 Besides, the residents said several commercial establishments like wood and iron stores keep their stock dumped on the road thereby making public movement difficult and also trigger noise pollution.
 Mehraj-Ud Din Qureshi a local said the matter was even brought into the notice of the District Development Commissioner Srinagar and the Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation(SMC), but no action was taken.
 The residents said there were no streetlights in the area, particularly in the Afandi Bagh Colony. The residents said for the past three years they repeatedly informed the SMC about the absence of streetlights but no action was taken.
 “Even though in the past two years dozens of lights were installed in Gulberg Colony and adjoining areas in Hyderpora where a then SMC Babu lived not a single light was installed in the Afandi Bagh area,” the residents said.
 They also said that the area roads need to be repaired. They appealed Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, Divisional Commissioner, Dr Asgar HAssan Samoon, SMC Commissioner Dr GN Qasba and the SDA VC Khawaja Farooq RenzuShah to look into the matter.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 May 2012 00:00:00 IST