Kargil's new battle - against power cut

KARGIL, JUNE 29 A year after the dark war clouds over the snowy mountain tops here blew over, people in this district in the Ladakh himalyas now grope in the darkness.

Following a techncial snag in the 3.3 MW Iqbal micro- hydel project here, the entire district has been without power for almost one and a half months, general secretary of the Imam Khomani Trust, Mr.Asgar Karbalayee told UNI. Despite repeated assurances by the administration, nothing has been done to rectify the trouble, he says.

``Even during the height of the Kargil conflict, we did not face such a situation,'' he says. When the Chief Minister,Dr. Farooq Abdullah inaugurated the three-day Kargil festival here on June 17, all shops and business establishments downed shutters in protest against the stepmotherly treatment. Though it was agreed at the last District Development Board meeting that two diesel generators would be installed here to meet the requirements of the people, they were finally placed in Leh as the government wanted to appease the buddhists, he alleges. The power failure has rendered many people jobless.

Though the district has suffered from power cuts in the past, this year the situation has worsened, he said. ''Earlier, we used to get power for three days in a week, but this time, we have not seen our lights burning for almost two months now.`` It was decided at a recent all-party meeting here that the people of Kargil would intensify their agitation against the discriminatory policies of the central and state governments, Karbalayee said. The owner of an STD/Fax booth in the main Bazar said he had been forced to buy a generator as power failure had badly affected his business. The customer has to pay much for the Fax facility though.

Apart from the metre charges, the booths charge an extra Rs.50 per page. The government wants to attract tourists here, but has done nothing to develop infrastructure, members of the business community say. Meanwhile, Dr Abdullah today directed the Power Development Department to provide Rs two crores for the early re- commissioning of the Iqbal project, an official spokesperson said. Also, Rs three crores will be provided to the department under the rural electrification programme to Kargil for purchase of diesel generating sets of one or two MW.

- UNI

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