Jammu & Kashmir Struggles with Acute Power and Water Crisis as Over 1,600 Engineering Posts Remain Vacant in Jal Shakti and PDD

||Black and White Digital News ||

||Parvinder Singh June 14,2025||

Jammu :As Jammu and Kashmir battles soaring summer temperatures — with mercury breaching 42°C in many areas — the region finds itself amid a deepening crisis of essential services. Severe shortages of drinking water and prolonged, unscheduled electricity outages have become a daily ordeal for lakhs of residents. What is increasingly evident is that this isn’t just a seasonal anomaly but a full-blown administrative failure — rooted in massive vacancies in the key engineering cadre of the Jal Shakti (formerly PHE) and Power Development Department (PDD).

According to internal sources, a combined total of 1,663 engineering posts — 802 in Jal Shakti and 861 in PDD — remain unfilled. These posts span crucial designations from Junior Engineers (JE) to Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE), Executive Engineers, Superintending Engineers, and even Chief Engineers, affecting every level of technical supervision, execution, and maintenance.

Essential Services in Paralysis:

Residents across both divisions of the Union Territory — particularly in Jammu, Samba, Udhampur, Rajouri, Kathua, and parts of south and central Kashmir — are facing daily hardships due to intermittent water supply and long electricity blackouts.

In several localities, drinking water has not been supplied for three to five consecutive days, while in others, tap pressure is so low that basic household chores are impossible. The Power Development Department, meanwhile, is imposing unscheduled cuts ranging from 6 to 12 hours per day, citing grid overload and maintenance backlogs.

Behind this operational breakdown is an alarming shortage of technical manpower.

“There are divisions where one engineer is holding two or three charges — supervising both urban and rural sections simultaneously. It’s humanly impossible to address emergencies, conduct inspections, and ensure regular supply under such circumstances,” revealed a senior engineer from the Jal Shakti department, speaking anonymously.

Why Are the Posts Still Vacant?

The vacant posts are not a recent phenomenon. Some of these positions have remained unfilled for over four years, despite repeated demands from within the departments, civil society, and even legislators.

• Jal Shakti Department:

• 802 vacant engineering posts, including:

• 487 Junior Engineers

• 178 Assistant Engineers

• 85 Executive Engineers

• 42 higher supervisory roles (SEs, CEs)

• Power Development Department (and allied corporations like JKPCL):

• 861 engineering vacancies, comprising:

• 503 Junior Engineers

• 202 Assistant Executive Engineers

• 97 Executive Engineers

• 59 in senior technical and grid management roles

This shortage has resulted in delayed repairs of transformers, broken pipelines, dysfunctional pumping stations, and poorly managed load balancing — directly impacting public life.

“The focus of the government seems to be on infrastructure announcements, ribbon-cutting, and long-term vision documents. But without filling these crucial frontline posts, all that is meaningless. You can’t run a power grid or water supply system with just slogans,” said a retired Superintending Engineer who once oversaw PHE operations in central Kashmir.

Double Charge System: A Failing Stopgap

In a bid to keep services functional, the government has been resorting to “double charge” arrangements — assigning additional responsibilities to existing officers. This ad hoc system, however, is pushing the staff to the brink of burnout.

“We’re held responsible for everything — from pump failures to public protests — but we’re not even given the manpower or tools to do our jobs,” lamented an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) in the Power Department posted in Jammu district.

This also creates a governance vacuum during field emergencies, such as transformer burnouts, pipeline bursts, or voltage fluctuations, especially in rural and hilly terrains.

Public Anger Escalating:

Frustration is boiling over in both Jammu and Kashmir regions. Protests have been reported in Gandhinagar, Akhnoor, Anantnag, Pulwama, Baramulla, and other districts. People are blocking roads, burning effigies, and staging sit-ins outside the local offices of Jal Shakti and PDD.

“This is not just an inconvenience anymore — it is a public health issue. No water in hospitals, no power in schools, people fainting in heat. What exactly is the administration doing?” asked Nasir Qadri, a community volunteer in south Kashmir.

In some areas, women are travelling several kilometers on foot to fetch drinking water from hand-pumps or nearby streams — a reality that should have no place in 21st-century governance.

Political and Administrative Silence:

Despite the return of an elected government in J&K earlier this year, there has been no concrete roadmap or timeline announced for filling the vacancies. Neither the Public Service Commission (PSC) nor the JKSSB (recruiting agencies) have released a consolidated recruitment notification for engineers in over a year.

Ironically, the government continues to launch new infrastructure projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission and various renewable energy schemes without addressing the foundational issue of manpower.

“Schemes look good on paper. But without engineers on the ground, they remain just numbers in budget documents,” said an official from the Finance Department.

Experts Recommend Immediate Steps:

Administrative veterans and sectoral experts have strongly recommended the following to rescue the situation:

1. Urgent Recruitment Drive: The LG administration and newly formed elected government must fast-track filling all technical vacancies through PSC/SSB and contractual appointments wherever required.

2. Outsource Temporarily: Until permanent posts are filled, empanel retired engineers and contractual technical staff on a district-level basis.

3. Incentivize Rural Postings: To ensure engineers are willing to serve in remote and underserved areas.

4. Upgrade Equipment and IT Systems: Remote monitoring tools and mobile repair vans should be deployed to cut down response times.

5. Transparent Grievance System: A 24/7 helpline with tracking IDs for water and power complaints can reduce panic and confusion.

Governance Must Begin with Basics:

The unfolding water and electricity crisis in Jammu and Kashmir is not merely a summer inconvenience — it is a crisis of governance priorities. While infrastructure slogans and digital dashboards dominate government communications, basic needs like water in a tap and power in a socket remain unmet for lakhs of people.

If the government does not urgently pivot toward fixing the structural staff shortages in Jal Shakti and PDD, it risks not just administrative failure, but a potential humanitarian and public health disaster in the making.