Deputy Commissioner Khalid Jahangir today took stock of snow clearance operation and restoration of electricity, drinking water and other essential services. He also reviewed the availability of essential commodities in the aftermath of heavy snow fall for the past two days.On the occasion, MED department functionaries informed that 695 km road falling under its jurisdiction were cleared by yesterday late evening amid continuous snowfall. The MED authorities were directed to undertake widening of main roads connected to headquarters for hassle free movement of traffic.R&B functionaries informed that road clearance activities are going on proactively in the district and so far, 400 km road length of 1000 km has been cleared.The R&B was directed to mobilize all resources and deploy additional machinery for completion of road clearance by today evening, with special thrust on inner links. Similarly, PMGSY engineers were also directed to expedite snow clearance to save commuters from hardships. All the concerned agencies were directed to give priority to road clearance work, particularly the approaches to hospitals, fire stations, PHE Schemes, Police Stations and other government establishments.The PDD authorities informed that all the 17 receiving stations in the district were restored and charged, while out of 68 11kv feeders 50 were restored and rest of them will be restored by afternoon. It was given out that 80% of the power has been restored in the district and incessant efforts are on to ensure 100% restoration by the end of the day.
The PDD authorities also informed that heavy damage to transformers have occurred during recent spell of snowfall.The District Development Commissioner took up the matter with Chief Engineer PDD telephonically for making the immediate provision of at least 40 transformers for the district to ease the hardships of general public.The AD Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs was asked to implement the orders issued in pursuance of the instructions of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir for rationing of petrol to private vehicles in letter and spirit. He was directed to ensure that road clearance, power, health and R&B machinery does not suffer for want of petrol or diesel as that would adversely affect restoration of services in the district.The CMO informed that all the health institutions of the district were functioning smoothly with proper heating arrangements. It was also informed that adequate stocks of medicines are available at the health facilities with 71 ambulances available for transportation of patients in the district. Similarly, PHE authorities were also asked to take up restoration of damaged schemes on war footing so that no hardships are faced by the consumers.The Essential Services Departments were asked to keep men and machinery in high spirits for ensuring time bound restoration of services so that minimum disruption is caused to the normal day to day activities.