Snow clearance: Six SMC men for 1400 lanes in Habba Kadal, ground workers facing tough time

‘Working hard to clear all lanes, but dearth of workers creating hurdles’

Owais Gul

Srinagar, Jan 08 (KNO): After City Mayor exposed functioning of corporation without equipments, the dearth of workers deployed for snow clearance work has also taken a heavy toll on the men on ground as the Habba Kadal locality having at least 1400 lanes and bylanes are supposed to be cleared by six men only.

“Only six men are available to clear nearly 1400 bylanes falling under his jurisdiction,” Jamadar Muhammad Shafi said while talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

“It is the fifth straight day when we are on the roads to clear the snow for people in the lanes and bylanes. The only equipment we have is the shovels,” Manzoor Ahmad, one of the SMC men said, adding that they don’t even get time to eat meals as they are persistently working on the roads after the heavy snowfall.

“There should have been proper equipments to deal with the situation. Our arms and hands are paining from the last five days as the snow accumulated was cleared from almost 1000 lanes and bylanes so far,” he said.

However, he said that many of the officials got retired sometimes back, but no alternative has been made to put an end to the sufferings. “We as well as the people living in the locality are suffering due to dearth of staff. But, nobody has taken care of it,” he said.

Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh, presently living in Awantipora is among the SMC men who are clearing the roads from past five days. He told KNO that he faced tremendous hardships in attending the duties in the last five days due to less traffic on the roads. “Despite facing hardships, I always reach the duties on time and put efforts to clear the snow across the areas he has been deputed,” he said.

Jamadar said the six men working to clear the lanes and bylanes are making it possible without any equipment. “People are complaining that their areas are not being cleared on time. But one can imagine how difficult it is for these six men only to clear almost 1400 lanes and bylanes,” he said.

Pertinently, the City Mayor, Junaid Azim Mattu admitted the failure of the corporation, saying that there are no equipment available with them to clear the roads within the shortest possible time.

Notably, Kashmir received heavy snowfall for three consecutive days following which the administration miserably failed to clear the snow on the roads, lanes and bylanes on time, thus added to the miseries of people—(KNO)