Budgam, Oct 13: Power Development Department (PDD) in Budgam township do not seem to have taken any lesson from the past as another load carrier vehicle caught fire here on Sunday last week after coming in contact with the low-lying electric wires on Budgam’s Khanpora road.
Last year, according to farmers, two load carrier vehicles caught fire at the same place leaving one of them fully damaged and other partially.
Locals of Budgam told Kashmir Images that three vehicles, loaded with paddy hay, caught fire in last two years when they came in contact with low lying transmission lines on Budgam’s Khanpora road, resulting in severe damage to vehicles including straw.
They said that the recent incident of blaze took place on October 7 when a vehicle coming from Khanpora caught fire. “Due to timely efforts of locals, vehicle got partially damaged, but grass went in flames.”
The Khanpora road is the only route to hundreds of kanals of agricultural land and farmers use this road for transporting their production.
While transporting paddy hay, locals said that they first cut electricity supply to the area, only to make sure that the load does not touch wires. However, they said, “Every time it’s not easy to disconnect electricity.”
Meanwhile, people here blamed PDD officials of taking Budgam township for granted. “Officials of PDD were informed umpteen times about the immediate need of repairing low lying wires but they didn’t take any action,” said Ghulam Mohammad, a local resident.
Another Budgam resident, Muneer Ahmad said, “Had PDD repaired the low lying wires, fire incidents on Khanpora road could have been averted.”
When contacted Executive Engineer PDD Budgam, Nasrullah Jan, he said: “Repairing work on the transmission line located at Khanpora will start within ten days under Deen Dayal (Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana).”
