Sopore residents rue defunct fountains

Sopore, Apr 21: The fountains in Sopore town are lying defunct raising a question mark on authorities with people accusing the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) Kashmir of wasting public money.

Projected to facelift the town's beauty, the fountains at College Point and at Bypass road near Ahad Bab crossing in Sopore are dry, with people stating that these projects function only when any VIP plans a visit to the town and they become dysfunctional within hours after they leave the town.

The locals, while accusing the department of Urban Local Bodies Kashmir of wasting the money of the public exchequer, said that instead of using the funds on such a "useless" project, the authorities should have used the funds to ease the miseries being faced by the residents here.

"We have seen fountains functional only on a few occasions, especially whenever there is any official/VIP visit in the town, " said Ashiq Hussain Zaki, a social activist from Sopore.

He said that many times, "we have taken up the issue with officials of Municipal Council Sopore, they assured that the fountains would be made functional following some repairs, however, the assurances proved a hoax."

"It seems the developmental project is just to please VIPS as whenever there is any visit, the fountains start functioning, however, these go out of order when they leave the town, " Zaki said.

"Now we appealed to LG , Director Urban Local Bodies and district administration to look at the issue and make these fountains functional again on a regular basis."