January 10
Nawaz Ibn Ahad
The Residents of Sofigund in Tral are up in arms against power development department (PDD) against continuous power outage due to damaged transformer.
The villagers speaking to The Kashmiriyat alleged that department is adopting ‘Delaying tactics’ in repairing the defunct transformer and restoring electricity.
Residents of Astan Mohalla in Sofigund village alleged that the 63 KV transformer of their locality went defunct four times in past four months leaving the village reeling under darkness.
“The transformer was allotted under CDF fund, meant for ziyarat sharif and Astan mohalla of the sofigund village in 2011, But the transfer went defunct four times with the onset of winter season that has pushed us to dark age”, Ashiq sofi, one of the Astan Mohalla residents told The Kashmiriyat.
“We are reeling under darkness from the past 15 days, we are unable to focus on our study in these dark like curfewed nights , PDD is treating us with a step-motherly attitude, despite many requests.We do not want to loose our creative time in this era of competition.We the students are the most victims of this PDDs negligence “, said Faizan maqbool sofi , A local student who recently secured 90% marks in matriculation.
“We many a times requested PDD authorities to replace the low capacity transformer of the village with a higher one, so that it can bear the load of the all households of the village but all in vain as our pleas fell on deaf ears,” locals said while speaking to The Kashmiriyat.
“First time the transformer went defunct in the month of March, the previous year. After contribution of some amount in the village, we transported the transformer to the PDD workshop in Awantipora. After a gap of one month, officials repaired the transformer and installed it in the village but after functioning for nearly five days it developed some technical snag and went defunct. People again contributed some money and took the transformer to the workshop, officials took 15 days to repair the transformer. But after functioning for a week, transformer went defunct third time,” locals said.
“I am a heart patient ,I have to take oxygen concentrater 3-4 times daily .But from last 15 days i could not as the concentrator needs power supply .We have many serious patients also in our mohala ,who are also living with the mercy of power supply” , Ghulam Hassan sofi told The Kashmiriyat.
Locals said that during the past four months they have received electricity for only 10 days, As the transformer went defunct many times but are made to pay the full electricity bills by the PDD.
Angry villagers gathered at Jamia masjid on sofi gund -khanagund and protested against PDD and demanded official intervention to mitigate their problem so as to get rid from the bitter cold of this chilly winter.
Harminder Singh, the JE of PDD in the area upon being contacted said that the transformer has been defunct for not more than six days. Asking the locals of the area to lessen the usage of the electricity he said, “Overload is causing frequent damage to the electric transfer.”
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat he assured that the defunct transformer shall be back within a few days and electricity will be restored in the area.