The Ganderbal administration has given the term “blanket ban” a whole new meaning by prohibiting the sale, storage or use of “heavy heating appliances” such as blowers, heaters and radiators that keep Kashmiris warm in the biting winters.
Coming amid a cold spell, the order by Ganderbal district magistrate Shyambir Singh, a young IAS officer from the “mainland”, is being viewed as another instance of an insensitive central government punishing Kashmiris according to its whims.
The order by the 2018-batch officer from Madhya Pradesh says the ban is being imposed to prevent the injudicious use of electrical appliances that puts too heavy a load on transmission lines and damages them, causing power cuts.
The banned appliances are the primary source of warmth for ordinary Kashmiris during the sub-zero winter months. The affluent few use the traditional hamams — which involve the burning of firewood placed under limestone tiles fitted to the floor — or their modern avatar, electric hamams. Singh’s order does not mention electric hamams.
“I, Mr Shyambir, IAS District Magistrate, Ganderbal in exercise of powers vested in me by virtue of Section 114CrPc of 1973, hereby impose blanket ban on the storage, sale, possession, and use of heavy heating appliances such blowers, heaters, radiators etc within the territorial jurisdiction of District Ganderbal with immediate effect,” the order said.
It said the measure would help provide hassle-free electricity to consumers as well as “government offices and hospitals of district Ganderbal”, and avert unscheduled power cuts.
It added that the heating gadgets cause short circuits “which ultimately result in fire incidents during winter resulting in loss of life and property”.
Many Kashmiris are keenly aware that the widespread use of such gadgets often damages transformers and transmission lines, but the blanket ban has triggered an outcry, particularly because the order suggests no alternative.
“Dickensian order by a J&K bureaucrat prohibiting possession and use of heating devices even as a harsh winter closes in on Kashmir. Read the language. Such a dark blend of pathos and comedy,” tweeted journalist Shakir Mir.
The Hurriyat conference tweeted: “A bureaucrat from India has ordered a blanket ban on electric heating appliances during the ice-cold winters of Kashmir. So basically they want people to freeze to death?”
Winter seems to have come early to Kashmir this year, with the past few days witnessing bitterly cold weather that has forced people to bring out their woollens and jackets in early November itself. There was some respite on Saturday, though.
The perceived highhandedness of Singh’s order has reminded many how his predecessor Krittika Jyotsna, also a non-Kashmiri IAS officer, had last year got an activist arrested merely for declaring he had no expectations from non-local officials.
Sajad Rashid Sofi had to spend five days in jail before an outcry forced his release. Sofi had allegedly told Baseer Khan, the then adviser to the lieutenant governor and a local man, at a janata durbar: “I can grab you by the collar and seek answers but what expectations can I have from officers who are not from the state?”
