Locals Clear Snow To Reach Hospitals, Morgues; Administration “Missing”

Srinagar: As heavy snowfall in Kashmir snapped road and air links, the Union Territory administration has come under severe criticism for its failure to clear snow from roads, which has brought life to a standstill in the valley.

Many areas in the hinterlands remain cut off even three days after it stopped snowing.

Record snowfall over the past week prevented ambulances from reaching patients, forcing locals to carry the dead and ailing on their shoulders for many miles.

While the Army and the Air Force came to their assistance, locals said the administration has remained missing.

Left to fend for themselves, the locals have started shovelling snow on their own.

“The young and the old had to come out and clear the snow.

We did manually; there was no assistance from the government,” a local told NDTV in Shopian, where a group of people carried a dead body for at least 10 miles as the road link to their village remained closed.

The problem is widespread.

In Srinagar`s Aloochi Bagh neighbourhood, Parminder Singh is clearing snow to take his father for dialysis, which has already been delayed. (AGENCY)