Jammu Tawi: Sunil Dimple, President of Mission Statehood Jammu and Kashmir, led a protest involving hundreds of women and residents against the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (PDD) and Public Health Engineering (PHE) for the acute scarcity of drinking water and disconnections of electricity to poor families.
Addressing the protesters, Dimple highlighted the ongoing crisis, stating that for the past week, many parts of Jammu city have been suffering from severe drinking water shortages due to the strike by daily wagers. He pointed out that water tankers were not being supplied to the affected areas, exacerbating the problem.
Dimple also demanded the government to waive off electricity bills for poor families under the PDD’s amnesty scheme, condemning the disconnection of electricity for these families. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of neglecting the welfare of daily wagers, alleging that the party had failed to regularize any daily wage workers in the past 11 years and had not implemented the minimum wages act.
The Mission Statehood leader further called for a raise in daily wagers’ salaries to ₹25,000 per month and encouraged daily wagers to hold talks with a government-appointed committee to address their grievances.
In his speech, Dimple also demanded the restoration of water supply projects such as the Chinab Akhnoor water project for Jammu city, the return of power projects like Slal, Uri, and Ratli, and a halt to electricity curtailments in the region. He reiterated the call for free electricity and water for all residents.
Other leaders such as Rejha Devi, Renu Devi, Kouslaya Devi, Rajinder, Tarsem, Kala Kumar, and Gopal joined Dimple in the protest.
Tags: Northlines, Jammu and Kashmir
