Any repositioning in the State Government and ruling party ahead of the lok Sabha polls this year, as the ongoing political turmoil within the State Congress suggests, is unlikely to attract the attention of the people of Uttarakhand with the common man in the Hill State which is still battling hard to get its concerns addressed for which its struggle led to creation of new State in the form of Uttarakhand about a decade ago.

If the Congress Party thinks it may convince the people of the Himalayan State than why is it still bringing new face to carry forward its people-friendly policies.

The poor supply of domestic cooking gas has badly disturbed normal life in the entire Kumaon division for many days. Howeverer, with the representatives of the Congress-led State Government which is busy in consolidating their political positions amid reports of change of guards within the establishment and the ruling party in the Hill State, there is no sign of early restoration of the domestic cooking gas supply in the Kumaon region.

The matter of concern is that the diversion of domestic cooking gas cylinders to different parts of the Garhwal division including Haridwar from the Kumaon region, has created a huge backlog in different parts of the Kumaon division.

Consumers of the same domestic cooking gas can be seen waiting for the arrival of the said gas cylinders at different delivery points here. More so, the consumers have also started staging  protest following disruption in the supply of the domestic cooking gas, but of no use.

It is to note that the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) looks after distribution of the ‘Indane’ domestic cooking gas in the entire Kumaon division.

However, when the attention of the officials concerned of the KMVN was drawn to the present crisis of the domestic cooking gas in the region, they informed that due to diversion about 4,000 domestic cooking gas cylinders per day to Haridwar and other parts of the Garhwal division, led to shortage of domestic cooking gas for the Kumaon area.

“We have already taken up the matter with the officials of the manufacturer of this ‘Indane’ cooking gas. The authorities concerned of the manufacturer of this cooking gas have assured us to solve the crisis soon,” they added.

According to KMVN, there are more than five lakh ‘Indane’ domestic cooking gas consumers across the Kumaon division. And, demand for this domestic cooking gas cylinders remaining more than 10,000 per day, but diversion of about 4,000 domestic cooking gas cylinders has badly hit the supply of the same in the Kumaon  division.

More so, ‘failure’ of providing the domestic cooking gas cylinders to their doorsteps despite charging for ensuring home delivery by the KMVN, has only added to the woes of the beleaguered consumers.  “We have to wait for the arrival of the vehicle carrying the domestic cooking gas cylinders on the main road on the day which is fixed for delivery of the gas cylinders, said Tejpratap, a resident of the Kaladhungi Road. And, sometime we have to wait for the entire day, only to return home empty hands in evening hours when the domestic cooking gas delivery vehicle doesn’t arrive,” he lamented. 

Similarly, with the city like Haldwani depending on over four decade old drinking water system there is no day when one area or the other is not doing without drinking water. Excessive dependence of tube well only leads to frequent collapse of the electric powered tube wells.

Presently, people of Haldwani ‘s Indira Nagar and Mandi areas are facing drinking water crisis after failure  of tube wells of the respective areas. As the officials concerned of the Jal Sasthan said, it takes at least 15 to 20 days to get a tube well rectified.That only shows how the public delivery system has improved in the Himalayan state since its inception.