EVEN AS the winter chill sets in, the district administration in Ganderbal, in a highly unusual order on Friday, imposed a “blanket ban on the sale, possession, storage and use of electric heating appliances”. Following widespread criticism, the order was amended late on Saturday night to limit the ban to “nichrome coil based” heaters.
Ganderbal includes the famous tourist destination of Sonamarg, where the minimum temperature was 4 degrees Celsius below zero on Saturday.
The order issued by the Ganderbal District Magistrate’s office on Friday listed “blowers, heaters, radiators” among the banned appliances, but did not mention air conditioners, which are commonly used to heat government offices.
“In order to provide hassle free electric supply to consumers as well as government offices and hospitals of District Ganderbal and to avoid unscheduled power cuts, thereby causing inconvenience to general public and disruption of services of emergent nature and particularly patient care, I, Mr Shyambir, IAS, District Magistrate, Ganderbal, in exercise of powers vested in me by virtue of Section 144 CrPC of 1973, hereby impose blanket ban on the storage, sale, possession, and use of heavy heating appliances such as blowers, heaters, radiators etc within the territorial jurisdiction of District Ganderbal with immediate effect,” said the order. “Any violation of this order shall attract punitive action as warranted under relevant laws,” it said.
The order, uploaded on the district’s official website, cited several reasons: “collateral damage to electric supply (transmission lines/ transformers) due to heavy load”, “non judicious” use of such appliances, “apprehension of short circuits which ultimately result (in) fire incidents”.
The Ganderbal District Magistrate did not respond to calls or text messages seeking his comment on the order.
Late on Saturday night, he tweeted a “corrigendum” from his official handle, amending the operative part of the order to “prohibit sale, purchase and use of banned nichrome coil based crude water heaters and crude cooking heaters which do not conform to the relevant specifications of the Bureau of Indian Standards”.
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Earlier, Nuzhat Ishfaq, Chairperson, District Development Council, Ganderbal, was among those who criticised the original order. “This is not a right decision. It will only cause suffering. Just like people in Jammu can’t live without fans and ACs (air conditioners) in summer, we can’t survive without these (heating appliances) in winter… It will not only affect common people but also the shopkeepers, who have made huge investments on stores selling heating appliances. It will render them unemployed again,” she said.
“On the one hand, they want to keep Sonamarg open in winter. On the other hand, there is this order. I don’t think it is practicable,” said Rauf Tramboo, president of the Travel Agents Association of Kashmir. “All the hotels in Sonamarg are not centrally heated, and you cannot run a hotel without heating appliances,” he said. Temperatures drop to up to 15 degrees Celsius below zero in Sonamarg.
Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti termed the order as “inhuman and ridiculous”. “J&K has become a laboratory for all kinds of experiments. This was started by Delhi and now the officers at the lower level are passing such ridiculous orders. They know people have been threatened into silence and can’t say anything. Outside (Kashmir), they give free electricity and (here) we have these orders. This is unfortunate especially as J&K contributes maximum electricity to the NHPC (National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) pool,” she told The Indian Express.
Former Chief Minister and NC leader Omar Abdullah also tweeted: “This is a ridiculous order. How can the administration impose a blanket ban on sale, usage and even storage of electrical heaters? Is the DC’s heating/ cooling AC covered under this Sec 144 ban? Will he have it removed from his office/ home? Are people supposed to freeze to death?”
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