Bandipora: Locals of Kanzalwan village in the Gurez Valley of Bandipora district staged a protest on Sunday afternoon against prolonged and erratic electricity supply, blocking the road near Grid Station Kanzalwan and bringing traffic to a standstill for over one and a half hours.
Men, women, and elderly inhabitants assembled near the grid station and voiced strong resentment, alleging that despite the recent inauguration of the Kanzalwan grid station, the power situation in their village has shown no improvement. The grid station was inaugurated to provide electricity to Kanzalwan and 14 surrounding villages, but locals said Kanzalwan itself continues to suffer from frequent outages and severe low voltage.
Protesters told the news agency Kashmir News Trust that instead of relief, the situation has worsened, leaving the village in darkness for most hours. They claimed that the promises made at the time of the grid station inauguration have not translated into stable power supply on the ground.
“We were assured that the new grid station would resolve our electricity problems, but Kanzalwan village is still facing long power cuts and extremely low voltage. Our village remains in darkness,” the protesters said.
One of the protesters, Abdul Majeed Lone, a local of Kanzalwan, said the village has only one electricity transformer catering to around 150 households, which is grossly inadequate. He stressed that at least two transformers are urgently required to meet the demand and ensure uninterrupted supply.
“In the evening hours, voltage drops to just 60 to 90 volts due to overloading. It feels as if there is no electricity at all,” Lone said, adding that the situation has made life extremely difficult for locals, particularly during the harsh winter period.
The protest dispersed peacefully after the Naib Tehsildar Gurez and DO Izmarg reached the spot and assured the demonstrators that their grievances would be addressed at the earliest. Following the assurance, traffic movement on the road was restored. [KNT]
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