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| Snowfall exposes preparedness claims! | | Officials admit failure to clear snow from Anantnag roads | | SAAHIL SUHAIL
EARLY TIMES REPORT
ANANTNAG, Jan 3: With officials admitting that they failed to make key roads in the district fit for movement of traffic on Sunday due to ‘continuous snowfall’ exposed the preparedness claims of Anantnag district administration.
According to reports, the Mechanical Division Anantnag (MED), equipped with around two dozen snow cleaning machines, failed to clear Bijbehara-Anantnag stretch for traffic which caused heavy traffic jams at Dak Banglow Khanabal near Deputy Commissioner’s residence.
“Yes it is true. Khanabal-Anantnag stretch witnessed traffic jams. We had cleared the road but since it was snowing continuously a few inches of snow accumulated on the road due to which vehicles started skidding and it caused a traffic jam,” An engineer, who was monitoring the snow clearance operations in Anantnag, told Early Times over the phone.
He admitted that his department couldn’t clear all the roads and made them fit for the smooth movement of traffic.
“We started our snow clearance operation at around 3:00am in the morning but still we couldn’t clear all main roads because it was snowing continuously,” he said.
He informed that the department has to clear over 1400 kilometers of roads in Anantnag mechanically while as few others are being cleared manually or through other means. He said that the division, he is working at, faces a shortage of machines. “We have around 22 machines but we require more machines. If additional machines are provided then only we can cope up with the situation fully,” he added.
In the evening, Bijbehara residents informed Early Times that there was a huge traffic Jam in old Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
Through the medium of Facebook residents made frequent requests to Anantnag district administration asking them to clear the road.
The situation in other areas of Anantnag district was also similar with residents alleging non-clearance of roads.
In Kulgam, most of the roads connecting far off areas with the district headquarter also remained under snow since Sunday afternoon.
The Power Department also failed to restore electricity in South Kashmir as the network which had suffered minor damages couldn’t be repaired.
However the department claimed that it had restored electricity to around 80% of the population. “Our all Grid Stations, Receiving stations and around 80% Distribution transformers stand restored. We are working on ground but the incessant snowfall is creating hurdles for our ground staff,” he said. |
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