Hundreds of vehicles were Monday stranded after the residents of Larkhi Pora blocked the main road connecting the area with Magam town of central Kashmir’s Budgam district to protests against the water scarcity from past couple of days.The residents of the area including men and women assembled at Khag-Magam road and blocked it for several hours. They were chanting slogans against Public Health Engineering (PHE) and were demanding immediate redressal of their grievance.Witnesses said that hundreds of vehicles were stranded after the inhabitants blocked the main road in the area thereby leaving the commuters to lurch at large.
Talking to KNS, the protesters said that they are facing acute shortage of water from past couple of days while the authorities are watching it as mute spectator. “At least six villages are facing water scarcity from past one week. Our demands should be redressed at earliest otherwise we will continue to stage protests against the department and will block the roads as well,” they said. Blaming Roads and Building department for water scarcity in their area, the protesting residents said that the water scarcity in the area occurred due to the road widening process in the locality as the process damaged pipelines at several points.Meanwhile, an official of the department told KNS that the process to restore the water supply to these villages is ongoing.However, he said that the ongoing work of road widening process is creating hurdle in restoring water supply to the area soon. (KNS)