Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Friday impressed upon the administration to expedite early mitigation of the issues concerning people in Srinagar in wake of the recent heavy snowfall.
In a joint statement, the party functionaries including former speaker Mubarak Gul, womens wing president Shameema Firdous, central secretary Irfan Ahmed Shah, Tanveer Sadiq and Ahsan Pardesi said that the delayed non clearance of the lanes, by lanes and main arterials has put the precious lives of the people in jeopardy. It has been more than a week, the administration is yet to clear the inner city alleys and main roads, they said while lamenting concerned agencies for their lackluster approach in dealing with the crises. “The amassed snow on foot paths, walkways and main roads has frozen due to the dip in the night temperatures. Due to the freezing temperatures the piled up snow is lying on roads and alleys has become slippery and perilous. The delayed snow clearance besides impeding the normal pedestrian movement has also affected the smooth vehicular mobility. The commuters in particular elderly and children, are finding it very difficult to negotiate through piled up snow on roads.”
“City roads continue to remain inundated at various places in both Shahar e Khas as well as up-town areas even weeks after snowfall. The impact, the infrastructure received due to the weather vagary is still awaiting an appropriate response from the administration. The pendant overstrained conducting wires and tree branches at various places can result in an untoward incident, so far administration hasn’t done anything to avert such scenario by cutting such unsafe overhanging tree branches and restoring strained wires,” the leaders said.
The PHE department is also shying away from its responsibility to check all water supply lines and storage tanks, which face the possibility of bursting due to freezing temperatures. There is no water and electricity supply schedule in place, it is people, who are at the receiving end due to the hide and seek piled by the water and electricity. The pesky water and electricity supply has in particular aggravated the elderly, students and ailing,” the leaders said.
The leaders said the choked roads in urban and suburbs of Srinagar city are hindering emergency services like fire extinguishers and ambulances to carry out their task. The accumulated snow on roads has also led to frequent traffic jams in the city. “The concerned agencies obligated with the task of ensuring hassle free traffic are imperceptible on ground,” they said.
While ruing the failure of the administration to check price rise, the leaders said the absence of the flying squads in the market places has also added to the plight of people on account of exorbitant price hike of essential commodities. “There has never been such an administrative breakdown. The city life is still out of gear. Conventionally the administration used to give a well coordinated response to the post snowfall aftermath, this time it has failed to come up with an amalgamated response to the weather vagary. We hope that the administration will wake up to its duties; it is there to serve people. we hope our appeal acts as a wakeup call for them,” they added.
