Easing out the situation
Now that the winter is approaching the administration here needs to prepare itself well in advance so that the harsh winter phase passes without troubling the already stressed populace in Kashmir division.
The biggest worry that the people face here during the winters is the halt in continuous supplies and non-availability of power that too during the peak hours. When the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its statehood and divided into two union territories, the only slogan that reverberated right from New Delhi to Srinagar, Jammu and Ladakh was that the entire exercise is meant to ensure development and growth of the regions.
Now that more than a year has passed there has to be some change at the ground level as 15 months are ample time for the administration to show some results and provide some relief to the common masses.
Kashmir, this year seems will pass thorough harsh winter period. This is evident from the drop in night temperatures that have been witnessed during the past two weeks now. Even on Sunday many upper reaches experienced season’s first snowfall pointing out to the winter being long and cold one.
The need to provide improved electricity schedule and other essentials required to beat the chilly winter conditions have to be high on the agenda of present administration. However, what is being witnessed is a total reverse of it.
The winter has not started and entire Kashmir region has been witness to unscheduled power cuts. This year the additional power cuts have happened too early. Otherwise, the power curtailment schedule was announced in November and implemented in the same month.
Another sector that has been hitting the people to the hilt is the healthcare sector in Jammu and Kashmir. In many hospitals the medical diagnostic equipment is lying defunct. Primarily, because the Union government has ordered that no servicing contract or repairs of the equipment will be carried out locally.
The Union government has allotted the service contract to one company reportedly based in Hyderabad. The company is reported close to the ruling dispensation and if any equipment in a government run hospital develops a snag it has to be rectified by this company alone.
This situation can have a crippling effect on the healthcare sector as the pandemic has meant that the number of positive cases are set to rise during the winter, making the hospital infrastructure to bear more load due to patient rush.
Similarly, in other sectors as well the suppliers and contractors have been ruing the fact that no supply orders or fresh tenders are being worked out which has resulted in a slump across the board.
In such a scenario the slogans of development and growth notwithstanding, the people are being subject to more miseries and troubles. This situation has to change.
KV Network
