A group of pheran-clad women fixed a row of stones to block a highway in Batmaloo locality of capital Srinagar on Thursday. They were protesting against snapping of power supply in the area, a phenomenon that has gripped every nook and cranny of Kashmir Valley as temperatures staring plummeting earlier this month.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is seeking another term to rid the power deficit crisis in the State but the Government is not offering any solution to the ongoing crisis except elongated load-shedding schedules and laments of distribution losses and wide gap between energy consumption and revenue realisation.
Officially, the power department has announced 57-hour power cut per week in non-metered areas and 18-hour curtailment every week in metered areas. However, the residents allege that the load-shedding schedule is followed more in violation and several areas receive low-voltage power supply after vast intervals. “Many sub-zero nights go without electricity. Sometimes power supply resumes after 12 hours and vanishes in less than half-an-hour”, lamented Zakir Hussain, a resident of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
The Valley is reeling under an intense cold wave while delay in precipitation has added woes to local population. The situation is affecting daily chores of people, especially the students and people associated with businesses and industrial units.
The officials say that the energy starved State requires around 18,000 million energy units but the available energy covers on two-thirds of it.