CPI (M) leader Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami Tuesday said even a week after the snowfall, link roads across Kashmir were still under snow while people in remote areas had been left to fend for themselves.
A statement of CPI (M) issued here quoted Tarigami as saying that after the recent heavy snowfall, people across Kashmir valley had been grappling with severe crisis as the administration had miserably failed to not only clear snow from the link roads but restore water and electric supply fully.
“Snowfall is nothing new in Kashmir, given its climatic conditions and topography. However, despite that the administration was caught napping as most of the link roads still remain closed more than a week after the snowfall. The snow and the government’s failure to anticipate challenges despite the Meteorological department’s warning of heavy to very heavy snow, have thrown life completely out of gear in the Valley and angered people,” he said in the statement.
Tarigami said that in Kandi areas of Kashmir, people had been left to fend for themselves as there was not only acute shortage of essential commodities, but electricity and water supply too had been affected.
“Roads to these areas remain still closed and the patients, particularly pregnant women, and those with cancer and other severe ailments have been left to fend for themselves,” he said. “In south Kashmir districts, where five to six feet snow was recorded in most areas, the administration was caught completely unprepared.”
Tarigami said that from power breakdown to the closure of roads in south Kashmir, people were battling with every hardship, but the administration seemed to be clueless.