Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 16: The Councilors of the Municipal Committee (MC) in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam today said that the gap between the people and the administration was increasing with every passing day due to the sluggish attitude of the authorities and that the elected representatives were not able to come up to the expectations of the people.
While addressing a press conference, President MC Pahalgam Owais Ahmad Sheikh threatened mass resignation of the Councillors in case the administration failed in addressing their issues which includes having a full-time Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
“The distance is increasing between the administration and people. People are suffering. The works which should be ideally executed within a few days, are taking months,” he said.
He said that only one tender is circulating for the last several months as the contractors are not ready to respond and take up the work, because, he said, their bills are already lying pending with the MC.
The MC President said that the bills of the contractors are lying pending and that they are not ready to work further. “Due to this, the people are suffering; we are having a bad time because we are not able to deliver in the absence of necessary assistance,” he said.
He said that the MC Pahalgam has got a CEO who is looking after the works of at least 3 MCs. “He doesn’t get time to address the issues and get the matters disposed of; I have been asking the direction office for a permanent CEO, but they are facing a shortage of such officers and are forcing us for things which we cannot do,” he said.
The MC members said that there was a shortage of work due to which people are disheartened. “In ‘My Town My Pride’, we have been asked to install street lights, but we are not able to do that; there has not been any administrative approval and the matter is lying pending,” they said.
Ex-MC President, Rayees Ahmad Lone who was also present during the press conference said that despite taking the risk of contesting the ULB elections, they have been left to fend for themselves.
He said that they have been asking the administration to resolve the issues but to no avail. “Nothing seems to be moving them; we are meant for supervision, while the DDO powers lie with the CEO, there is no CEO which means that the functioning taking a hit,” he added.
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