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| ‘PDD officials ignore rural protests’ | | Power cuts irk Watoo residents | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Kulgam, Jan 4: Hundreds of Watoo Aharbal villagers today blamed power development department officials for creating divisions among the rural, urban population of the district as the department is allegedly ignoring rural areas while resolving problems.
The protesters blocked Anantnag- Aharbal road at Watoo for several hours accusing government as well as power development department of creating a rural-urban divide by giving preference to the woes of the urban areas.
They alleged that the department especially officials were ignoring rural areas and are giving priorities only to urban areas or the areas that are on the political map of the state. "Officers forced us to protest and block road as they are not listening to us. Every time whenever we visit them they are seen fiddling with their cell phones", said Mustaq Ahmad, a protester.
He added: "Today, we protested against the department and blocked road but no one from the concerned department visited the village, they are little bothered about our protests as according to them we Gujjars aren't important and the politicians have the same mindset. These double standards of the PDD Officer are inacceptable."
The protesters said that politicians were reluctant to set things right. Village Watoo is in Aharbal area and gets electricity from Receiving station Damhal Hanjipora, The locals allege that power supply is not being provided to them as per schedule. Furthermore, few transformers of the area got damaged due to over loading and department hasn't bothered to repair them.
PDD Officers of District Kulgam couldn't be contacted, However, Deputy Commissioner Kulgam, Jahangir Ahmad Mir assured that the electric transformer of the particular village will be repaired within the days.
Ruling out discriminating against rural population, Mir said, "For us every one is a human being whether he resides in village or town. Convey to them to visit few people my office I will look into the matter." |
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