The people across Jammu are spending sleepless nights and crying for a glass of water while the Chief Minister and his colleague ministers are sleeping under ACs in palatial bungalows in Srinagar and enjoying waters of Chashma Shahi. This was stated by Leader of BJP Legislative Party Ashok Khajuria while addressing media persons at Jammu on Monday alongwith State President & MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma, MLAs-Sukhnandan Kumar and Sham Choudhary. Ashok Khajuria said that it has become an annual routine that with the Darbar Move shifting to Srinagar, the people of Jammu are subjected to hardships on account of long power cuts and non availability of drinking water. In summers there is no electricity and drinking water in rural as well as urban Jammu.
He said that while 19 hours long cuts are imposed in most of the areas of Jammu region, the drinking water too is not available for days together while the Chief Minister, who is heading PDD and his other ministerial colleagues hailing from Jammu are enjoying summers in Srinagar without caring for the common masses. He warned the government to shed its policy of harassing Jammuites failing which BJP activists will undertake the exercise to gherao the senior officials of PDP and PHE and may even lock them in their offices. Jugal Kishore Sharma said that be it rural or urban, every where the people are made to suffer due to long power cuts and irregular supply of drinking water. The bills of electricity are send every month to consumers and are harassed by threatening of disconnection in case these bills are not deposited but the electricity is not supplied to them. In many areas, the meters have not been installed and there is no electricity at all but still bills are despatched.
Sukhnandan Kumar said that although there has been meters in some rural areas but still the consumers are forced to pay bills on flat rates slab which can not be justified by any means. He asked the government not to test the patience of the helpless consumers. Sham Choudhary said that besides water, the non availability of electricity is also creating problems for farmers. They cannot irrigate their fields as the transformers installed in their villages are non functional for years together. Water pumps do not operate due to non availability of electricity and the crops of farmers suffer.