Uri's Garkote residents rue unscheduled power cuts

Uri, Sep 6: Residents of Garkote village of Uri town in north Kashmir’s Baramulla complained about irregular power supply in the area for the last many days.

A delegation of locals told Greater Kashmir that they are suffering due to the unscheduled power cuts.

“We are agitated over frequent power cuts which are beyond notified schedule. Frequent interruptions are so huge that even the inverters are unable to keep up,” said Manzoor Ahmad, a local.

Locals said that Garkote feeder mostly remains off causing inconvenience to the consumers. “We pay the electricity bills up to Rs 1,000 in a month but we only get the supply for 4-5 hours in a day. This is injustice to us,” said Bashir Ahmad, another local.

He alleged that no power department staff visits the village for maintenance duties whenever there is a technical snag. “The department is suffering from a shortage of staff. Some areas in Uri are lacking senior officials, which is contributing to the disruption in electricity supply,” he said.

“This week alone, we have experienced power issues twice. Unfortunately, these technical problems are not resolved promptly, despite repeated requests to the power department,” he added. “Additionally, department employees have been given multiple responsibilities, which also affects the smooth electricity supply in the area.”

They highlighted that hanging electricity wires and decaying poles pose serious safety hazards and contribute to disruptions. “These issues have not been addressed for years,” said Faizan Ahmad, a local resident.

“Though we have taken up this matter with the concerned PDD officials in Uri a number of times, there has been no serious redressal to the problem,” they said.

Shazia Ali, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) PDD Uri could not be contacted for her comments. However, Dalbir Singh, Superintending Engineer PDD Sopore circle told Greater Kashmir that he will look into the matter.