*No forecast of rain till Mar 25
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 16: With the advent of March, the summer heat has set in across Jammu province as mercury levels have been soaring across the region with the maximum temperature shooting up to 35 degree Celsius in Jammu while the repeated power cuts by the Power Development Department has further aggravated the problems of the people.
Since the beginning of this week, residents have been facing the brunt of rising temperature, with mercury levels breaching the 30°C mark repeatedly across Jammu. A weatherman told Excelsior that the maximum temperature was recorded at 29.2 degree Celsius on Monday and it soared to 31.0 degree Celsius on Tuesday. He said the maximum temperature today rose to 35 degree Celsius, which is the highest so far recorded in mid March.
“Earlier, the highest maximum temperature in the month of March was recorded at 35.8 degree Celsius in the year 2018 but the record date was March 30 but this time, mercury has shot up to 35 Degree Celsius on March 16, that is, 14 days earlier,” he said and attributed the sudden rise in mercury levels to no rainfall and clear sky in the current month.
The sudden rise of maximum temperature has not only been witnessed in Jammu district but also other major cities of Jammu provinces, the weatherman said while adding that Katra today recorded maximum of 32.6 degree Celsius while Bhaderwah registered maximum temperature of 30.4 degree Celsius, 12.8 notches above normal.
He said the weather will remain mostly sunny in Jammu for the next 10 days with day temperatures shooting up to 37 °C mark or even higher as there is no forecast of any rainfall in Jammu region till March 25 while in Kashmir, he forecasted cloudy sky on March 19 and 20.
Meanwhile, the repeated long duration power cuts by the Power Development Department have added to the misery of city denizens with residents alleging that power situation in the city has worsened since the start of this month. “The power remained off during the whole day yesterday without any prior information. Toddlers could not sleep for a minute,” said Vandana Sharma, a resident of Paloura said.
Situation is worse in outskirts, residents alleged. “It seems like they are testing our patience. It is more irritating when no one picks up the call at the electricity office and the phone keeps on ringing,” said Navin Kumar, a resident of Bantalab area. He said the LG administration makes tall claims of providing 24x 7 power supply in the city but so far the concerned Department has failed to provide even 8-10 hours power supply without any interruption.
Chief Engineer, J&K PDD, Sandeep Seth denied any unscheduled power cuts in the UT and said the outages were due to maintenance work. “There is no unplanned power outages witnessed anywhere in Jammu and Kashmir. The disruptions for a few hours are due to maintenance work going on at different places to strengthen the existing power infrastructure,” he said while adding that all these works will be completed till ending March
He said the UT Government has been improving power infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted power supply to people both in rural and urban areas. “We have been replacing old and low power transformers with better ones. New electric lines are being installed and sub-stations are also being made for proper power supply,” he added.
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