Shivering Srinagar residents, who have been experiencing severe power shortage, can draw cold comfort from the fact that their leaders — including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah — joined in their ordeal on Sunday.
While the Valley has been reeling under a severe power shortage over the last few days, reportedly due to snow damaging the transmission network, Mr. Abdullah ordered the VIP grid disconnected from power supply on Saturday night, so that hospitals and other essential installations can receive the electricity instead.
Senior officials at the Power Development Department told PTI that the order to disconnect the grid, which includes the Chief Minister's residence, came from the very top.
For 21-year-old IAS aspirant Shakir Mir, the last 72 hours have been a nightmare. “I have my civil services examination coming up, but no light to study with. I can't charge my laptop or watch the news, even BSNL services are going down, and it feels like we are being cut off from the rest of the world,” he said.
Grid stations affected
Apart from light, the lack of heat is disturbing and reports that ATMs are failing have added to the worry.
Unprecedented snowfall in the higher reaches of the Pir Panjal range had caused a fault on the Kishanpur-Wagoora Transmission Line at Pogal Paristan, and also affected 19 grid stations. These have now been charged and the electricity department was hoping that power would soon come from the national grid.
