Sanitation tunnels installed by SMC go defunct within months
SRINAGAR : Months after their installation, the sanitation tunnels installed by Srinagar Municipal Corporation have gone defunct in the summer capital.
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation has spent lakhs of rupees on installing decontamination and sanitation tunnels in various hospitals and departments in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Surprisingly, the sanitation tunnels have gone defunct months after their installation thus creating a huge loss to the state exchequer.
Take instance, four sanitation tunnels have been installed at Civil Secretariat Srinagar, which is the highest seat of governance. Surprisingly, none of them is operational.
“If this is the condition of the Civil Secretariat where Lieutenant Governor, Advisors, Chief Secretary and other bureaucrats visit daily then you can expect conditions at other places,” an official at Civil Secretariat told.
The news agency also managed to click videos which show none of the sanitation tunnels are operational at the Civil Secretariat.
“You should ask this question to SMC why the sanitation tunnel is not functional. They might have better knowledge,” a security officer told.
The tunnel disinfects people by spraying chemicals on every person who goes through it. These types of tunnels have been used in China and Turkey.
At the time of installation of sanitation tunnels with much fanfare, Commissioner SMC, Gazanfar Ali had said the Corporation has also installed two decontamination tunnels at the entry point of secretariat to ensure visiting persons get sanitized instantly while entering or leaving the secretariat premises. Even former Mayor SMC Junaid Azim Mattuu was carrying a team of cameramen with him while installing tunnels to give wide publicity.
The condition of tunnels is the same in other government offices. Like Sanatghar at Bemina which houses several departments and corporations, the tunnel is defunct.
There is a greater demand from people that a CBI probe should be held into fund utilization by the SMC during the COVID-19 period.
The SMC is already in news for wrong reasons in the recent past. Recently, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) carried out raids at residences of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials in Srinagar about illegal construction of shopping Plaza at Kursoo Rajbagh.
The anti-graft body said that they raided houses of four top officials of SMC and incriminating material, documents were recovered during the searches.
“The searches were conducted in residential houses of accused persons—Mehrajuddin Buja, Ward Officer, at Bemina, Nisar Ahmad Rah, Building Inspector, at Nawab Bazar, Bashir Ahmad Shah, Enforcement Officer at Peer Bagh and Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Building Inspector at Dooru Anantnag,” it said.
The statement said that a joint surprise check was conducted by ACB Police Station Srinagar to probe into the allegations of illegal construction of Abdullah Shopping Plaza at Kursoo Rajbagh, Srinagar.
Accordingly, the ACB said a case (FIR N0.11/2020 U/S 5 (1) (d), r/w 5(2) of PC Act-2006 Svt. and 120 RPC) was registered against the officers/officials of SMC on August 27 and in compliance to a court order dated 29-08-2020.(KINS)
