Not the snowfall but the preparedness of the administration was unexpected this week when expected snowfall collapsed operation of essential services in Kashmir valley. While the irrefutable fact is that snowfall is always expected any time from December beginning to middle of March ,it is also an undisputed fact that administration also can’t take lame excuses for it’s failures by claiming that snowfall at the fag end of February is unexpected. A snowfall in November at the fag end of March can be unexpected but at the fag end of February it is expected. Seven inches of snow somewhere at the close of February month collapsing delivery of essential services like power supply, snow clearance operations and restoration of drainage facilities only shows the failures of administration. Mayor Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) carrying out field visits in selected pockets of Srinagar only to keep the officials engaged with his unwanted visits on snowing day instead of controlling the restoration of essential services from his office shows that the head of the top civic body of Kashmir unfortunately takes a sadistic pleasure in his own media projection instead of overseeing restoration of essential services from his office after the snowfall. Interestingly most of the Srinagar divisions of engineering departments including R&B and PHE Division Srinagar are now controlled by Srinagar Municipal Corporation but not the Chief Engineers of their concerned departments and as such the onus of failures in restoration of snow clearance and water supply lies fully on top brass of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation but not the divisional administration of Kashmir.
Since the public representatives are not concerned about their coordination with the civil administration over the issues concerning delivery of basic social services in any area of Kashmir valley they contribute more to the failures in the delivery of basic social services and less in the accessibility of basic social services in trying times. So the onus by all standards of understandabilities lies more on public representatives of municipal bodies and three tier panchayat bodies and less on the administration.
Since the response of the heads of municipal bodies of almost all the towns of Kashmir valley was in no way different than that of Srinagar Mayor, the heads of municipal bodies must own the failures in the restoration of the essential services in their concerned towns and same holds good for heads of District Development Councils, Block Development Councils and Panchayats in villages. By all standards of understandabilities public representatives have to take care of the basic social services in the hours of crisis and unfortunately they take care of themselves but not the people who vote for them just to facilitate the delivery of basic social services in their concerned constituencies. Since the public representatives are not concerned about their coordination with the civil administration over the issues concerning delivery of basic social services in any area of Kashmir valley they contribute more to the failures in the delivery of basic social services and less in the accessibility of basic social services in trying times. So the onus by all standards of understandabilities lies more on public representatives of municipal bodies and three tier panchayat bodies and less on the administration.
