Away from the political uproar over the killing of two sarpanchs, Valley is roiled by another crisis of equal magnitude which doesn’t command any political attention. And this is the situation that has unfolded following the new round of reforms  announced by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Besides okaying the FDI in retail and hiking the diesel price, the reforms have capped the number of subsidized cooking gas cylinders at six in a year. The reforms have a direct bearing on the life of a common man everywhere in the country. However, the issue here is not to question the reforms per se but how the political class in this state is completely insulated from their profound impact on the people. The reforms and their fallout have determined the political discourse in the rest of the country, but J-K politics has remained more or less untouched. This so, even while the reforms have directly affected every individual of the state. There has been an immediate and devastating impact on the supply of cooking gas. A system of open-market distribution that has been in vogue for years has been drastically disrupted. And the families whose life depends on the supply of LPG have been left to fend for themselves. Gas agencies demand production of papers before fresh LPG refills. And given the longstanding practice of freely available gas on the market, fewer people in the Valley have them. Though, state government had announded a transition period of almost one month– albeit a very brief one considering the  systemic change that is required – the petroleum companies have refused to go by it. Meanwhile, the state is experiencing an artificial cooking gas shortage and even blackmarketeering of LPG. And all this is happening while the government remains caught up with God knows what other urgent concerns. In fact, government and the political class in the state as a whole are not even fence-sitters here who might be hoped to watch the scene from a distance but completely oblivious to the unprecedented crisis and chaos that is playing out on the ground. 

Lastupdate on : Sun, 30 Sep 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 30 Sep 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 1 Oct 2012 00:00:00 IST