Disinfectant was not available, says SMC commissioner
Srinagar, Sep 18: Months
after their installation, the sanitation tunnels installed by Srinagar
Municipal Corporation have gone defunct in civil secretariat Srinagar.
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation had installed decontamination and
sanitation tunnels in various hospitals and departments including civil
secretariat Srinagar in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus
pandemic.
Four sanitation tunnels
have been installed at Civil Secretariat Srinagar, which is the highest
seat of governance. Surprisingly, none of them is operational.
“If this is the condition of the Civil Secretariat where Lieutenant
Governor, Advisors, Chief Secretary and other bureaucrats visit daily
then you can expect conditions at other places,” an official at Civil
Secretariat told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
On Thursday the KINS also managed to click videos which show none of
the sanitation tunnels were operational at the Civil Secretariat.
“You should ask this question to SMC why the sanitation tunnel is not
functional. They might have better knowledge,” a security officer told
KINS.
When contacted Commissioner
Srinagar Municipal Corporation Gaznazfar Ali, he said that the
disinfectant was not available. “We have placed the order and are
expecting it by tomorrow. We’ll make it functional again,” he told
KINS.
The tunnel disinfects people
by spraying chemicals on every person who goes through it. These types
of tunnels have been used in China and Turkey.
At the time of installation of sanitation tunnels with much fanfare,
Commissioner SMC, Gazanfar Ali had said the Corporation has also
installed two decontamination tunnels at the entry point of secretariat
to ensure visiting persons get sanitized instantly while entering or
leaving the secretariat premises. Even former Mayor SMC was carrying a
team of cameramen with him while installing tunnels to give wide
publicity.
The condition of tunnels
is the same in other government offices. Like Sanatghar at Bemina
which houses several departments and corporations, the tunnel is
defunct.
The SMC is already in the
news for wrong reasons in the recent past. Recently, Anti-Corruption
Bureau (ACB) carried out raids at residences of Srinagar Municipal
Corporation (SMC) officials in Srinagar about illegal construction of
shopping Plaza.
The anti-graft body
said that they raided houses of four top officials of SMC and
incriminating material, documents were recovered during the searches.
“The searches were conducted in residential houses of accused persons,” it said.
The statement said that a joint surprise check was conducted by ACB
Police Station Srinagar to probe into the allegations of illegal
construction of Shopping Plaza.
Accordingly, the ACB said a case (FIR N0.11/2020 U/S 5 (1) (d), r/w 5(2)
of PC Act-2006 Svt. and 120 RPC) was registered against the
officers/officials of SMC on August 27 and in compliance to a court
order dated 29-08-2020.(KINS)
