SRINAGAR: Castigating the government for its insensitiveness and inefficiency in tackling the snow aftermath situation in the Valley, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday said the present snowfall has exposed the governance failure and administrative mismanagement in the state.
In a press conference, the partys senior leader and former Finance Minister, Tariq Hameed Karra along with the party legislators, Mohammad Khalil Bandh, Rafi Ahmad Mir and Dr Mohammad Shafi Wani said the government has excelled through lip service only and its tall claims of getting things back on rails after the snowfall squarely fall flat when related with the actual ground situation.
We have been receiving frantic calls throughout the Valley about the administrative failure and the people are suffering on multiple fronts because of the careless government, Karra said adding the non-availability of the ration, LPG and other essential commodities have worsened the situation.
Karra said the Chief Minister instead of directing the administration to be present on the ground to mitigate the miseries of people, has held them hostage for high profile mega meetings with the result they are not able to work in the field and address the genuine issues of people.
Karra said the inability of the government to tackle the snow aftermath situation has brought huge hardships to the common masses and exposed the administrative inertia and the government has been solacing itself by resorting to rhetorics in the cosy rooms.
Karra said snow is not anything new to Kashmir and the present dispensation has miserably failed to devise any plan and strategy to tackle the situation. There is always an advance preparedness meeting at the divisional level to meet such challenges, but the lax attitude of the government has resulted into the governance collapse in the state, he said adding the slow snow clearance operations has left a sad comment on the state of affairs in the state.
Karra, who is also PDPs parliamentary candidate for Srinagar constituency, said the most of the roads in the Valley particularly South Kashmir have not yet been cleared of the snow that has resulted into the tremendous problems to the people particularly the patients who were not able to reach the hospitals.
Most of the areas in South Kashmir particularly in Anantnag and it seems the people there are deliberately being penalised for not voting to the ruling party, he said.
The non-clearance of snow, Karra said, has badly hit the health services as the medical staff could not reach their duties. There have been certain casualties also as the critical patients who could reach the hospitals could not be treated because of the non-availability of doctors and para medical staff in the hospitals.
Wherever the snow is being cleared it is done on the political considerations only and the ministers ensure their areas should get the due attention, he said. Similarly, the students have to suffer as they were not able to reach the examination venues on time.
He said water logging in Srinagar is posing a serious problem and in the coming days it is going to be worst.
He said the power situation has gone from bad to worse as at most of the areas the electricity has yet been restored. Even in the summer capital, Srinagar the power has not been fully restored, even the hospitals are lacking essential power supplies. Had it not been so why the chest disease hospital did not get power supply for the last two days due which the patients and attendants were forced to come on roads, he said.
He said the damaged transformers are not being lifted from different areas and if they are in the workshops they are not being repaired leaving the people agitated.
Karra said when as premier opposition party when PDP agitates the governance deficit, inefficiency and insensitiveness of the ruling elite on roads the present Maharajas would cast aspersions on us for bringing issues on road. Had the government been sensitive towards the miseries of the people we would not have got forced to do so!
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