{"id":5123,"date":"2025-11-26T17:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/?p=5123"},"modified":"2025-11-26T19:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T19:18:11","slug":"watchi-locals-decry-power-infra-smart-meters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/watchi-locals-decry-power-infra-smart-meters\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchi locals decry power infra, smart meters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Shopian, Nov 26:\u00a0<\/strong>The residents of Watchi area in South Kashmir\u2019s Shopian district have expressed strong resentment over the ongoing installation of smart electricity meters, saying the government has failed to upgrade the decades-old power infrastructure that continues to put them at risk and leave them without reliable supply.<\/p>\n<p>Locals alleged that while officials are rushing to install smart meters across the area, the electric poles, wires and transmission lines remain outdated and dangerously weak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not against smart meters,\u201d Ghulam Rasool, a local resident said. \u201cBut what is the logic of installing expensive meters when the poles here are still wooden and the wires can snap anytime? First strengthen the infrastructure and then talk about metering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another resident, Abdul Majeed, pointed towards a leaning wooden electric pole outside his house. \u201cThis pole has been like this for years. Every winter we fear it will collapse. If the government has money for smart meters, why not for proper poles and strong cables?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Residents said the problem worsens in harsh weather conditions when low-quality transmission lines get damaged, plunging the village into frequent outages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSmart meters will not stop the power from tripping,\u201d said Misra Bano, another local. \u201cWe need a stable power supply, not devices that only record consumption more accurately. Electricity first, metering later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Villagers said they have repeatedly approached the Power Development Department (PDD) for replacement of wooden poles and damaged wires but claim their pleas have gone unheard.<\/p>\n<p>They appealed to the administration to take note and address the infrastructural shortcomings before pushing ahead with the metering process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want development, but it should be meaningful and safe. Upgrading the infrastructure should be the first priority,\u201d the residents added<strong>\u2014(KNO)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shopian, Nov 26:\u00a0The residents of Watchi area in South Kashmir\u2019s Shopian district have expressed strong resentment over the ongoing installation of smart electricity meters, saying the government has failed to upgrade the decades-old power infrastructure that continues to put them at risk and leave them without reliable supply. Locals alleged that while officials are rushing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5125,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5123\/revisions\/5125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}