It sounds bizarre that representatives of the people who are supposed to take up the problems of the people in the Legislative Assembly should abandon the people and quietly enjoy the salubrious cool of Kashmir while their voters are fighting against the summer heat with back to the wall. Entire Jammu region is caught in the grip of burning heat of a long and dry summer when the mercury touches above 42 degrees Celsius. The summer in the kandi area of Jammu with chronic water shortage has made life miserable.
The worst is that there is nobody near at hand to whom the people would bring their woes of lack of electricity and water supply in the scorching summer. The elected representatives are enjoying cool breezes of Kashmir oblivious what their people back in their towns and villages in Jammu are facing. The situation is becoming unbearable for the helpless masses of people who have now begun to bring out large scale protest rallies of angry crowds. Street protests have become a daily routine in many parts of Jammu and the people are angry that in the midst of the heat of summer they are left uncared for. There is nobody at hand among the MLAs of MLCs or the Ministers who would listen to their woes and do something to mitigate their hardships. It has become almost a practice with the PDD and the PHE to take their job lightly in the absence of the Secretariat which is now functioning in Srinagar as a result of Durbar move. The fact of the matter is that soon after the Durbar move took place, the functionaries at these departments have slowed down their work and are misusing the situation in which accountability is virtually lacking.
Engineers and other responsible functionaries of the Power Department are producing a number of reasons for regular cuts in power supply to prove that they are helpless. There was a time when the PDD announced that no power cut would be effected in metered segments. But this formula never worked as was claimed and whether the area is metered or not metered, power cut is a regular feature. Recurrent power cuts are causing great difficulty to the student community which has to do their homework and prepare lessons for various professional and non-professional classes.
This is the time when the elected representatives should have been sitting on dharna on the roads and streets in Jammu to plead the cause of their respective constituencies. If they boycotted the Assembly session even for one day and sat on dharna in their respective constituencies, it would convince the people that they have made the right choice of their representatives.. When representatives do not come to the rescue of their voters, it is betrayal of trust.
Is it not the responsibility of these elected representatives and ministers to pillory the PDD for not being able to reform the redundant system of repairing the damaged transformers? The department has defaulted in paying the arrears of the accredited private workshops running into crores of rupees. Unable to realize the arrears, these companies and workshops have decided not to repair the transformers dumped in their workshops. Who is responsible for creating this sordid situation? When there is no electricity, water supply to the towns and villages is also adversely affected. The result is that most parts of Jammu region especially the water starved kandi region is going through most trying period of the season. It has to be reminded that some years back, the Cabinet had taken a decision that during the durbar move, part of Government machinery will stay back in the twin capital cities to overlook the administration and the problems of the people. This mechanism worked for one or two sessions and then was gradually abandoned. Now the situation has come to pass that there is nobody anywhere in the Secretariat to answer the questions of the people. The PDD, whenever approached tried to give a plethora of defence in their stand bringing the onus to the doorsteps of others and absolving itself of all responsibility. This is somewhat a situation like lawlessness in which people are left to fend for themselves. The ultimate scenario that is in the offing now in Jammu region is that of large scale protests and dharnas and rallies. The elected members of the legislature are not in a happy position to say the least and they should not expect the people to be forgiving after they are going through such a plight on account of power cuts and shortages.
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