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| After LPG and kerosene fires, electric bolt hits people | | |
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 19: As if the unending crisis over LPG and kerosene oil were not enough. A serious electric power crisis has now shocked the people in the Valley much before the onset of this winter.
Senior officers of the PDD say the crisis is because of 'consumer misbehaviour' who are misusing electricity these days because there is a scarcity of cooking gas and kerosene in the state. Both scheduled and unscheduled curtailments have been started throughout the Valley with the rural areas claiming to be bearing the brunt of the electric department's wrath against 'consumer misbehaviour'.
It is probably first time in the history of the state since 1947 that the people in both urban and rural areas are stricken with so many problems at the same time. There is a cap on LPG announced by the centre, there is an artificial scarcity of cooking gas created by unscrupulous traders who are having a field day selling cooking gas cylinders in black, there is an artificial scarcity of kerosene oil which again traders are selling in the black market with the blessings of the officers of CAPD and there is the traditional electric power crisis.
The non-seriousness of the government had become evident from the very beginning of the LPG crisis. Without verifying facts the CAPD minister had said the cap for Jammu and Kashmir had also been raised to nine cylinders like other Congress ruled states in the country. The concerned ministry in New Delhi denied any increase in LPG cap from the existing six to nine cylinders for Jammu and Kashmir. What shocked the consumers was the statement from the same ministry that nobody from the state government had so far even approached the union ministry for an increase in theLPG cap for Jammu and Kashmir. Residents of Srinagar city including men, women and children are seen lined up in endless queues waiting for their turn to get a cooking gas cylinder. The state government has now announced that a team of ministers will now approach the central government for increasing theLPG cap in respect of the state. Agreed that the LPG crisis was triggered by the union government's announcement putting a cap on the number of cylinders those would be issued to a consumer and that too on valid connection papers, but what has the state government done to mitigate the sufferings of its people? The government of Rajasthan has already taken a decision to subsidizeLPG cylinders for its people from the state resources so that the common man gets some sense of relief from the otherwise unending crisis. Would J&K continue to look at Delhi with a begging bowl or try to do something on its own to at least give the people a sense that there is a government in power which is capable of acting on its own? |
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