Harshest Chillai Kalan in 30 years leaves a trail of miseries

On the last day of January, when Kashmir was bidding adieu to the 40-day harsh winter period of Chillai Kalan, the mercury broke the 3-decade record of lowest temperature. The mercury in Srinagar dropped to minus 8.8 degrees Celsius which is the lowest since 1991.

This winter the residents of Kashmir braved the harsh climate conditions which inflicted a host of miseries on them. In some places like Shopian the mercury dropped to -15. The 40-day long Chillai Kalan left people grappling with deaths, worst water crisis, damaged properties, highway closures and also price hikes in essentials.

   

Residents from almost all Kashmir districts say that with the frozen supply lines they are finding it hard to get potable water. A senior official in the PHE department said that although they have put a well organized mechanism in place to make sure the supply of water but freezing cold has made it hard.

“The supply lines inside homes are frozen and so are the water storage tanks. Even if main supply lines are working, most of the time it is not reaching the households. The department is using heating devices to defreeze the lines and water tankers are also pressed in various places,” said the official.

The year’s first snowfall led to a week-long closure of the highway followed by skyrocketing prices of essentials. Amid the chilling cold people had to brave hoarding, black-marketing and higher prices of essentials.

“The rate list of essentials, especially vegetables is nowhere to be seen. During the highway closure the prices of some vegetables which are otherwise sold at Rs 30 to 40 per kg were selling twice the price. The poultry and meat prices were higher than the designated rates which are still continuing,” said Irfan Ahmed, a Srinagar resident adding that amid all the problems there was curtailment in ration.

In his multiple conversations with the Greater Kashmir over price hike and other issues, Director FCS&CA, Bashir Ahmed Khan said that action was taken against violators. “So far action has been taken against 677 defaulters. These include those involved in black marketing, hoarding and those who sell essentials at prices higher than fixed by the administration,” Khan said.

He said that the department has also sealed shops and dozens of FIRs have been registered against violators.

The un-cleared snow that was the talk of the town did not only hinder the movement of public and vehicles but also hit the essential services. In mid January back to back fire incidents took place in Srinagar only. The locals said that the disaster could have been averted or minimized if movement of fire tenders was not hampered by un-cleared snow.

In one of the incidents a house was gutted at Zadibal area of Srinagar on 16th of January at noon.

Mohammad Shafi, the owner of the house told the Greater Kashmir that due to the un-cleared snow the fire tenders could not reach the spot.

“Despite all the efforts it took a lot of time to fix the pipes and douse off the flames, till then the damage was done. We had to shift to our relative’s house. Had snow been cleared on time, the damage could have been contained to a great extent,” Mohammad Shafi said.

On 18th of January, 3 fire incidents were reported in Srinagar within 24 hours in Safakadal area of Srinagar. The fire left 6 families homeless as more incidents were reported across Kashmir amid chilling winters.

“The un-cleared snow, frozen roads made it impossible for fire tenders to reach the spot most of the time. Downtown is already congested and the un-cleared snow triggering traffic jams hampered the movement of fire tenders during such incidents last month,” said Ayaz Zehgeer of Downtown’s Beopar Mandal trade organisation.

The early January snowfall left more than 100 houses damaged while two died in separate incidents in the first week of January. The videos of collapsing roofs were doing rounds on social media throughout January.

On January 20, the Greater Kashmir reported that 3 children of a nomadic family died in Kulgam woods due to subzero temperatures. The frequent power cuts also took a toll on people, patients on oxygen supply and COVID patients were the worst affected.

As the administration is claiming to put all resources at the disposal, but on ground it was a nightmare for the local population. In many incidents administration acknowledged the loopholes in preparation, be it lack of snow clearing machines or other issues. The harsh winter that started taking a heavy toll on the population from the first week of January post snowfall looks far from over.

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