Srinagar: The ongoing internet gag in Kashmir has left the majority of government departments defunct across Kashmir as people are not able to get their work done owing to the non-functioning of official computers.
The departments that have borne the brunt of internet gag are Power Development Department (PDD), Social Welfare department etc.
People across Kashmir have been waiting for their monthly bills from the Power Development Department (PDD). “Since August, we have not received the monthly electricity bills. There is already an economic crisis in Kashmir since August 5 in the wake of abrogation of Article 370. I went to the concerned PDD office and sought my bill. The officials there told me that they have no access to the internet and can’t generate the bill till internet is restored,” said Javaid Ahmed.
A PDD official said that they will be sending the bills of at least three months together its all consumers in Kashmir. “Because of the internet gag, we were not able to generate the monthly bills,” said Chief Engineer PDD Kashmir, Hashmat Qazi. “We will now soon send bills to our consumers across Kashmir.”
The internet gag has also cast its shadow on the much ambitious scheme of New Delhi—the Ladli Beti, where newborn female child is given a monthly financial help till she reaches the age of 16. The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendera Modi with a sole aim of ensuring quality education of girl child across the country including Jammu and Kashmir in 2017. In Kashmir, scheme is implemented by social welfare department. “We are solely dependent on the internet. We are not able to retrieve the data of children registered with us and the amount disbursed by the Centre. Earlier, there has been monthly monitoring and disbursement of funds to the respective accounts of girl child,” a senior social welfare employee said. “We are not able to implement or monitor the scheme since August 5.” (KNS)
