NC, Cong stage walkout over power crisis

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 21

Members of the National Conference (NC) and the Congress today staged a walkout from the Legislative Assembly over the power crisis in the state, especially in the Kashmir valley, during the harsh winter.

This happened after the government couldn’t give a satisfactory reply to a question raised by NC MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar. He asked why people had been subjected to unscheduled power cuts in the Valley.

Sagar was supported with supplementary questions by his party colleagues, Mian Altaf Ahmed, Devender Singh Rana and Abdul Majeed Larmi. They demanded answer from the government as why no relief was being provided to people, but there was no satisfactory response from the government.

Minister of State for Power Farooq Ahmed Andrabi informed the House that Rs 66.61 crore had been spent on the repair of 24,334 transformers damaged or burnt in the last two years across the state. These include 13,409 in Kashmir, 10,685 in Jammu and 240 in the Ladakh region.

But the Opposition members wanted a clear-cut answer as to why there was no end to the unscheduled power cuts and didn’t want to get into statistics.