No end to highway troubles
IT is mid march and Kashmir is all set to welcome the spring season. However, the Valley is yet to recover from the pain and sufferings that the Jammu-Srinagar highway has caused to them during this winter.
This winter the highway has witnessed innumerable closures that too for longer periods of time. The situation turned chaotic in Kashmir during February and March when even the fuel supplies run in short supply causing a concern among the masses here.
The highway has been behaving quite badly during the past four months now. During this time of the year this in nothing unusual as the ill maintained road has been witnessing frequent closures during the winter months.
But what has shocked the people, especially living in Kashmir valley is the obnoxious planning the civil administration has been resorting to. The highway troubles have been resulting in short supply of food items, fuel and LPG supply in the valley.
This winter the closure of the arterial Highway led to depletion of fuel stocks in Kashmir to such an extent that the authorities were forced to direct fuel pumps to provide only three litres petrol per vehicle per day.
Though the order was not being implemented and followed, but the situation reflects the failure of the administration that the stocks had depleted to such a level that supplies could not suffice for three days.
The situation is so alarming that LPG supply has almost been stopped to even households during the past few days now. Locals have been alleging and calling up newspaper offices that despite bookings LPG dealers are not supplying the required gas cylinders to them.
The appalling situation apart, the alarm set-in by the government itself has meant that hoarding is at its peak in the valley as of now. Just yesterday meat which is officially to be sold to a consumer at Rupees 450 a kilogram was sold at around 600 Rupees a kilo. Similarly, rates of chicken were fixed at Rs 170 a kilogram as compared to 115 Rupees fixed by the government.
Even though when the administration claimed that thousands of truck carrying poultry and other essentials to the valley have reached here on Sunday still the rates of poultry and other essentials were exorbitant. Chicken was still being sold 150 Rs a kilo and the rates of vegetables too have not scaled down an inch.
The administration has failed miserably on all fronts and no effort is being made to bring in some sanity in the markets where a common man is being looted ruthlessly.
As for the administration the babus are busy chatting with each other through video conferencing and assuring each other that all is well and measures are being taken to provide all sort of relief to the hapless people.
If at all the governor’s administration is keen on easing out the worries of the common man, it should immediately try to fix responsibility on those officers who are responsible for the mess that has been created owing to the bad weather conditions.
KV Network
