AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: While BJP cabinet ministers were working hard in Kashmir Valley and also enjoying pleasant weather conditions, the majority of people who voted them to power, hoping for a better future, are struggling to beat the scorching heat due to erratic power and drinking water supply.
As the mercury levels soared in Jammu and broke all previous records, clueless PDD staff found themselves on the wrong side of the table.
Due to break-down of power supply, masses bore the brunt of unscheduled cuts and long delays in restoring the supply in residential areas and commercial centres. The power consumers were left fuming with anger as they faced unscheduled power cuts. Tall assurances of improved power supply and better infrastructure fell flat as residents failed to get their transformers replaced and repaired in time due to long queue and absence of resources. The much talked about R-APDRP project also came under scanner of the power consumers paying regular hefty bills.
Their problems were compounded by the weather gods as high velocity winds lashed City of Temples aggravating further the power scenario.
Feeling heat from all quarters, Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Nirmal Singh on Wednesday spared some precious time to take stock of the power scenario. During the meeting he directed the officers to ensure early restoration of the damaged power infrastructure due to the inclement weather in Jammu. Dr Singh also directed the Chief Engineer PDD Jammu to direct the field officers to ensure that the people do not suffer and be responsive to the demands of the consumers viz-a-viz restoration of power supply and damaged transformers.
He said that they should also setup a 24×7 help line for providing uninterrupted power supply to the people of the division. The directions passed by the Dy CM to set up 24×7 help line clearly establishes the fact that such platform was not available to the power consumers and despite making rounds of local power stations they were not able to get in touch with the senior PDD officers to apprise pathetic conditions. In the absence of power supply, water supply to many localities remain disrupted as the pumping stations remain non-functional.
