Half of New Rangwar Drangyari village remains unelectrified, people suffer

Kupwara, Feb 28: Nestled in the foothills of Bangus Valley, New Rangwar village in Drangyari area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district is grappling with lack of electricity subjecting its sixty households to hardships.

The residents said that after numerous representations to the concerned authorities about electrification of their habitation, a project was sanctioned last year following which work was started in the area but that remained confined to sixty households only and rest of the habitation was left un-electrified due to reasons best known to the authorities.

“We still draw on conventional means to light our houses after sunset. It really tells upon us while seeing other houses of the village glittering with electricity,” a local Mohammad Ashraf told Greater Kashmir.

“Since Drangyari has been designated as a tourist village and most importantly several villagers have registered their homes under home-stay programme, the electricity is a must in our village, but unluckily the authorities at the helm of affairs are watching our hardships as mute spectators,” he added.

“Because of the serene beauty and location of our village, most of the tourists prefer to visit our village and stay here for night but lack of electricity has a bad impression on them,” said another local.

The residents said that for the last one year they have time and again brought this issue into the notice of concerned officials but nothing concrete has been done so far in this regard.

Meanwhile Assistant Executive Engineer Power Development Department Trehgam Iftikhar Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that due to lack of funds they were unable to accomplish the project.

“Since a new Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been submitted in the DC Office following the instructions of Deputy Commissioner Kupwara Ayushi Sudan, we are waiting for release of payments. Hopefully we will be able to electrify the remaining households soon,” he added.