Shopian: Fed-up with the promises, thousands of villagers in Shopian again on Friday left their homes with shovels to remove the snow from roads on the third consecutive day.
However, locals urged the district magistrate and higher officials that they should not show any expenditure on snow clearance operations in the area.
“After we removed snow from the road, some machines were seen here. It sounds suspicious as they want to withdraw money in the name of snow clearance,” Junaid Ahmad Shah of Imamsahib village told Kashmir Reader.
Locals from Imamsahib Tehsil informed Kashmir Reader that as many as 30 villages in the area manually removed snow from the link roads using shovels as most of the machines are being used to clear snow on upper reaches like Keller, Gattipora, Sedow, Manloo and Hirpora.
An official said that besides other machines, at least three snow cutters have been pressed into service in the above areas given the depth of the snow. He said that Shopian has witnessed more snow than any part of Kashmir.
According to official record compiled by the Tehsildars, 19 residential houses, 28 cow sheds and 5 other structures suffered damage due to heavy snowfall in Shopian.
A video of villagers carrying the dead body of a woman in Keller was circulated on social media. Locals informed that villagers were forced to carry the body on stretcher for 10 kilometers to reach Kathahalan.
Removing snow manually by the villagers was also carried out in Cheki-Choland, Pargochi, Barbug, Pehlipora, Ayend Rawalpora and many other villages.
A senior official from district administration said that 60 percent priority first roads have been cleared from snow till Friday evening and 50 percent priority second roads.
Deputy commissioner Shopian Choudhary Muhammad Yasin told Kashmir Reader denied snow cutters were from brought from Srinagar but said two machines were brought from Mughal Road division for snow clearance.
Assistant executive engineer (R&B) Mechanical , Fayaz Ahmad said that two snow cutters were with them (Mughal Road division) but they used them after the orders from higher authorities. “We can’t use them before approval from higher authorities. We received the approval on Thursday and soon they were utilized for snow clearance operations,” he added.
Meanwhile chief engineer Mechanical Kashmir along with deputy commissioner Shopian visited different areas of Shopian to take stock of the snow clearance arrangements.

Raashid Hassan