Let us hope you are there this time
The Metrological department in Jammu and Kashmir, especially the valley has predicted yet another bout of snowfall for the Kashmir Valley, however, hopefully the prediction is that as grave as the last one that struck the Valley in the first week of the month proved to be.This time round authorities of various government departments said they have mobilised men and machinery to deal with the fresh spell of snow and rains forecast for next three days.Notably, during the season’s first snowfall on November 3-4, various departments and government agencies associated with the delivery of essential services—especially the power development department—were found missing on the ground. However, the PDD officials said necessary pruning of trees has been done in various places in the Valley to prevent falling of branches on the transmission lines, this time. Even in some localities electricity was kept suspended for long hours as officials claimed to have done the pruning on some important transmission lines that supply electricity to various important installations including the trade centre Lal chowk.The November 3 snowfall had led to near-total power outage in the Valley as the transmission system was badly hit. Following the snowfall, the PDD was able to supply just six percent of the total 1250-MW power the region draws on a daily basis. In some areas of south Kashmir lot of damage was done to the transmission lines besides the grid located at Lisser. Though the snowfall was more severe in southern districts the snow clearance by various local bodies in these areas also came under severe criticism. According to officials, a snow clearance action plan has been formulated by mobilising all resources.In the summer capital Srinagar, 80 permanent dewatering stations, 115 mobile pumps and sucker machines have been made fully functional while sufficient number of loaders and JCBs have been put in place in other district headquarters as well.Besides, a round-the-clock control room has been established by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, which will work as snow clearance cell as well.However, all these measures will be put to test once the weather takes a turn for the worse. As of now the weather conditions are not so bad as was predicted.Monday for most of the time during the day remained dry and even for Tuesday the prediction has been reported as mild snowfall and rains. But since the weather can take turn anytime, let us hope we find the government machinery alive to the needs of the general public.Let us hope that this time around the babus are there to take our distress call seriously and they are in a position to provide timely relief and action to mitigate the problems of the general public. Winter is a tough period for all of us. The government machinery too is not skilled to deal with the crisis that hit us during these months but what matters is the will to get things back on track and in most of the cases it is the lack of will that delays the restoration services rather than the conditions that are available on ground.
KV News
