Over 150 villages plunge into darkness
SYED ALI SAFVI
SONPAH, May 14: Over 150 villages of Beerwah Tehsil in Budgam district plunged into darkness in the late evening yesterday as a mob of angry youth from Chewdara, Machom, Drunger and Wangun set ablaze Receiving Station here after a PDD daily wager, a local resident, died of electrocution while repairing a high tension wire at a nearby village.
Massive protests were held against police and civil administration here today. Alleging that only daily wagers were being asked to repair transmission lines, the protesters said that the daily wager, Riyaz Ahmad Lone son of Ghulam Rasool of Machama Beerwah, was killed due to the negligence of PDD employees present in the receiving station, who had turned on the main switch at the station while Firoz was still repairing the lie .
Officials said that as many as six feeders, including Beerwah, Arizal, Chewdara, Gondipora, Arwah and Najin, besides 250 sub stations have been affected.
“Nine computers, old and new records, including fresh surveys conducted by the department, have turned into ashes," they added.
A PDD official, pleading anonymity, told this paper that the incident happened due to the negligence of police and civil administration.
“I fail to understand why the administration could not extinguish the fire in eight hours,” he said, adding that it smacks of a sinister conspiracy.
A daily wage lineman of PDD department, Riyaz, was repairing a high tension wire at Chewdara village, 2 kilometers away from the receiving station yesterday evening between 6:00 to 6:15 pm, when he came in contact with a live wire, while performing duty, resulting in his on-the-spot- death. The protestors alleged that the main switch at the Receiving Station was switched on while Riyaz was still repairing the line.
Two PDD employees, who were present in the receiving station, are missing since the incident.
The residents of Sonpah village alleged that police and Tehsildar Beerwah, Abdul Hamid Zargar, could have saved the receiving station from being completely damaged, but they watched as mute spectators and allowed fire to spread,
“We tried to rush towards the burning receiving station to douse the flames, but the police stopped us from reaching there,” said the irate Sonpah residents, who had gathered today on the lawn of gutted receiving station building.
Castigating the role of police and civil administration, the residents alleged that police did not allow fire tender vehicle to reach the spot.
“No official of district administration has bothered to pay a visit here to take stock of the situation,” they said, adding that even the concerned MLA, Dr Mohammad Shafi, had not turned up to assess the situation.
Talking to Kashmir Times, Senior Engineer PDD Budgam said that the transmission cable has been completely damaged, adding that possibly electricity would be restored in a week’s time.
“Outdoor equipments seem to be okay, but indoor equipments have been completely damaged,” he said, adding that nine computers and a printer were also completely damaged in the fire.
“There were three persons present in the receiving station and all of them are very experienced,” he said. “Riyaz was also an experienced person. There must have been some miscommunication, which has led to the incident.”
He said that emotional sentiments were misused by some miscreants who intentionally set the records on fire.
Talking to Kashmir Times, SHO Beerwah refuted the allegation of people and said that people did not allow the fire tender vehicle to reach the spot.
“They (protestors) pelted stones on the fire tender vehicle and it could not reach the spot,” he said.
“We have limited man power in police stations,” he said. “Our primary concern was to avoid further casualty. We did our best to save other buildings from catching fire.”
He said that police had identified the persons who were involved in the killing of the PDD daily wager.
“Both of them are PDD employees. They will be arrested soon,” he said.
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