Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), the top civic body in Kashmir though claims to have cleared the snow from the city roads but the men and machinery of the top civic body could be hardly spotted in any city area during last two days of consecutive snowing in Kashmir valley. The moving vehicles on city roads pushing the snow to two opposite ends of the roads is perhaps enough for the Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu and City Municipal Commissioner Gazanfar Ali to claim complete clearance of snow from the city roads, but perhaps they won’t find even a single word to satisfy the critics if they ask them questions about the dancing movements of the pedestrians on snow covered footpaths in almost all parts of Srinagar city. Ironically even the government vehicles ferrying officers and officials of the government departments were seen dancing on the city roads both in uptown and old city parts of Srinagar city. While shockingly the snow clearance in lanes and bye lanes was not visible in any residential area in any part of the Srinagar city, the newspaper offices were flooded with official statements of Srinagar Municipal Corporation which spoke about the field visits of one or two areas of the city by Mayor Mattu and Municipal Commissioner Gazanfar Ali. Reducing snow clearance to only press statements for the purposes of cheap publicity without it’s visibility on roads and lanes and bye lanes shows the negligence of the top functionaries of Srinagar Municipal Corporation who owe too many explanations to the city populations over their intolerable negligence in discharge of their duties.
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Penalising people for violation of SMC’s order on use of masks is good for the health safety of the city population and control of deadly COVID-19 pandemic in Srinagar city but question can be asked that what about penalising the SMC’s top functionaries for lying about snow clearance operation and lifting of garbage from the residential areas within the city municipal limits on two consecutive days of heavy snowing in Srinagar.
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Forget about the snow clearance in Srinagar city by the Srinagar municipal corporation (SMC), even the vehicles used for lifting garbage from the residential areas were not spotted moving anywhere in uptown areas or old city parts. Punishment for negligence is good for the health of public accountability as SMC Mayor himself has ordered penalty for the violators of his order on use of masks within the municipal limits of Srinagar city. Penalising people for violation of SMC’s order on use of masks is good for the health safety of the city population and control of deadly COVID-19 pandemic in Srinagar city but question can be asked that what about penalising the SMC’s top functionaries for lying about snow clearance operation and lifting of garbage from the residential areas within the city municipal limits on two consecutive days of heavy snowing in Srinagar.