Tribune stories

People fret as power, water supply go erratic
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, May 3
With the mercury rising every passing day, the erratic power cuts coupled with water crisis have started taking toll on the residents.

According to them, today was the worst day for them as electricity went off for more than six hours resulting in no water supply in most of the localities in the town and on the outskirts.

The residents said the power, which went off at around 1 pm, affected the water supply in majority of the areas including DC Colony, Old City, Danidhar, Kheora and Jawahar Nagar.

“See summer has just started begun and the power and water supply have gone erratic. This hollows the claims of the government of providing electricity and water with its departments showing little preparedness for facing the tough times ahead,” fumed Tariq Lone, a resident.

“If the things continue like this and the government doesn't take concrete steps to mitigate our problems, we will be left with no other option but to protest,” he added.

Housewife Manju Sharma echoed similar concerns. “See there was no electricity in the town for more than seven hours. Since water supply is heavily dependent on the electricity even that was affected. I fear if this scenario doesn't improve in the coming months, we would die.”

Every effort to contact the local power department officers failed, as they didn't attend to the repeated phone calls.

However, deputy commissioner Sheikh Rafiq Ahmed told The Tribune that district administration was keeping a close tab on the situation. “Let me tell you that common man will not be made to suffer. We will ask the departments concerned to streamline the services,” he assured.

Meanwhile, sources in the power department confirmed that electricity remained disrupted in most areas of the town, however, they attributed it to the technical snag in the power supply line.

A water supply department officer said since there was no electricity since afternoon, they couldn't supply water.