Kashmir Valley has been witnessing a huge power crisis even though Jammu Kashmir Chief Secretary last month had directed the Power Development Department to ensure that there is no problem of power in Kashmir during winters.
Central, South and North Kashmir areas even Srinagar city localities are reeling under darkness while PDD is even resort to power cuts even in metered areas.
“There will be no major improvement in prevailing electricity crisis across Kashmir Valley. Like past years, this time as well, we are short of supply while the consumption is much higher,” said an official wishing not to be named.
“From past couple of days we haven’t seen electricity in our area particularly during evening and night hours. The help line numbers provided by PDD are not functioning,” Zubiar Ahmed, a resident of Mehjoor Nagar area of Srinagar city told CNS.
People are complaining from length and breadth of Valley of power crisis.
Reports said that most of the areas in rural Kashmir are facing acute power woes, the Srinagar city and other major towns’ also are narrating a similar story. People are holding protests on daily basis against the power vows in different areas of Kashmir. A complete shutdown was observed on Tuesday in Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district against the power outages in the area. Hundreds of people took to streets and shouted slogans against the Power Development Department (PDD) on Tuesday. The protesters also staged massive protests at main market Tral and complained against unscheduled and long power cuts that they have been facing for last two weeks. Protests were held in Chadoora, Beerwah, Rafiabad, Kadipora, a couple of villages in Shopian and Kulgam on Tuesday against the power woes.
A trader said that if the poor power scenario continues, the situation may worsen further and may compel people to take to the streets across Valley. Furthermore, not only the erratic power supply has left people reeling under darkness, but the floodlights installed at several places in the summer capital are also non-operational making it quite risky for the commuters.
