Singh meets Guv, CM; holds review
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 10: Union Power Minister RK Singh today voiced concern over “administrative inertia” in Jammu and Kashmir saying that the State was at verge of missing deadline of December 2018 for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prestigious scheme of ‘Power for All’ and called for expediting work on all projects and Central schemes to ensure their timely completion.
Singh, who was in Srinagar on his first visit to the State after taking charge of the Power Ministry from Piyush Goyal, also conveyed concern to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Deputy Chief Minister, Incharge Power Development Department Dr Nirmal Singh over delay in executing of various projects and Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
At a high-level review of progress on power projects and other schemes with top brass of Union Power Ministry, NHPC, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and State Government officials, the Power Minister is reported to have directed that powers of taking decisions on the projects should be given at lower level for expediting the projects.
“Why every file should come to the Civil Secretariat? Some of the powers on taking decisions should be given to the officers. This would help in early implementation of Government schemes and execution of projects,” Singh is reported to have said at the review meeting and cited that such an experiment has been tried in his home State of Bihar and has been successful.
Singh wondered that number of projects including those under PMDP are running behind schedule, which not only leads to cost escalations, but also deprives people of the facilities.
“This can’t be allowed to happen and shouldn’t happen,” he is reported to have told the bureaucrats.
Sources said the Union Power Minister was deeply concerned at metering and billing of power connections in Jammu and Kashmir, which stood at just 50 per cent. He cited that States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have 99 per cent billing and 98 per cent collection of revenue which has made these States self sufficient in energy.
He suggested the Power Department officials to go for pre-paid metering in at least capital cities of the States i.e. Jammu and Srinagar, to begin with, and later extend it to other cities and towns to generate revenue collection.
“The pre-paid metering scheme has been launched in some States and was successful. It can be started in Jammu and Srinagar cities and, if implemented successfully, can be extended to other cities and towns,” RK Singh is reported to have said.
According to sources, the Union Power Minister said the `Power for All’ scheme of Narendra Modi Government shouldn’t miss the deadline of December 2018 in Jammu and Kashmir and called upon the officials to take all possible measures to meet the deadline.
According to sources, there were apprehensions in the meeting that `Power for All’ schemes might miss the deadline in Jammu and Kashmir as out of 102 un-electrified villages in the State, 41 fall in remote and hilly areas of Kishtwar, 18 in mountain locked Leh, 31 in hilly Kargil and five in Bandipora and Kupwara districts including Gurez.
Apart from this, there were 31,000 families, which were living in isolated mountainous area, who will be covered under `Soubaghaya’ scheme of the Centre Government.
Sources said the Minister took note of the reports that some big companies, which have expertise in construction of power projects, were reluctant to come to Jammu and Kashmir on the ground that their payments are held up for six to eight months due to administrative inertia.
“In view of this, construction of projects is delayed,” he said.
According to sources, the Power Minister also took up some of these issues in his meeting with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh and wanted the things to be set right.
Sources admitted that some top officers of the Power Development Department had no satisfactory reply to the queries of the Power Minister.
In his meeting with Governor NN Vohra, Singh said the Centre has taken various initiatives to support Jammu and Kashmir for rapidly achieving a satisfactory level of power generation and effective distribution.
An official spokesman said that Singh called on Governor N N Vohra at Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday and apprised him about the various initiatives being taken by the Union Power Ministry to support the J&K State Government for rapidly achieving a satisfactory level of Power generation and effective distribution.
Singh briefed the Governor about the steps being taken by the Government of India for meeting the challenge of improving power supply all over the country.
He particularly apprised Governor about the various initiatives being taken by the Union Power Ministry to support the J&K State Government for rapidly achieving a satisfactory level of Power generation and effective distribution.
Governor stressed the vital importance of immediate steps being taken by the State Government for securing maximum possible benefit from various schemes launched by the Union Government and every required measure being taken to ensure power supply to the remotest areas of the State.
He expressed concern over the growing huge gap in the cost of power purchased and the electricity dues recovered from consumers in the State and impressed upon the State Power Department to take necessary steps to recover dues from each and every defaulter and work towards full recovery being made.
In his meeting with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, RK Singh discussed implementation of various schemes aimed at improving the generation and distribution of power in the State.
Mehbooba impressed upon the Power Minister the urgency of pacing up of these power schemes in view of dire need of power supply particularly during winters. She sought extension of APDRP in the State in view of more demand from areas to be covered under the scheme.
Implementation of power generation and distribution of projects under Prime Minister’s Development Plan, start of new projects and pace of rural electrification also came up for discussion during Singh-Mehbooba meeting.
An official handout said: R K Singh today directed for speedy and effective implementation of various schemes being undertaken in JK’s power sector so that Prime Minister’s initiative of providing electricity to every household by December 2018 is realized.
The Minister was speaking at a meeting convened to review the status of various initiatives undertaken in the power sector by the State Government.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Minister of State for Power Syed Farooq Ahmed Andrabi, Joint Secretary Power, Government of India, Principal Secretary PDD J&K Dheeraj Gupta, OSD to DyCM Shakti Pathak, senior officials and representatives of project implementing agencies were also present.
The Union Minister directed the officers to ensure timely completion of Central Government schemes in power sector and their implementation within the stipulated time.
He said the officers and the executing agencies should work in a coordinated manner to ensure successful closure and completion of the developmental initiatives.
The Union Minister asked for taking necessary measures for ensuring that the Prime Minister’s initiative of power for all is realized and requisite electricity is provided to the consumers. He said “we have to ensure that every household of the state is electrified by December 2018 for which the consumers would be provided the connections free of cost and the programme would be demand driven.”
He assured every possible support of the Union Ministry and said that the state should not hesitate in projecting the demands. He said the Centre would very liberally provide the requisite funds and other logistics for upgrading and augmenting the power generation and transmission as well.
The Union Minister directed for exploring the possibility of installing smart and prepaid meters so that the Revenue realization is increased and the losses on account of the same can be compensated. He also asked for exploring other power generating avenues like solar and wind as well besides hydroelectricity.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh while speaking on the occasion, said the schemes would be taken on a mission mode so that they are successfully implemented. He said the State would fully supplement the central initiatives so that these programs are completed within the stipulated timeframe.
“The Prime Minister’s vision of providing 24×7 electricity to every household of the state would be implemented in transparent manner so that there are no un-electrified villages or hamlets,” Dr Singh said.
He said in order to speed up the implementation of various schemes, central PSUs have also been roped in as project management and implementing agencies.
Principal Secretary PDD Dheeraj Gupta gave an overall presentation about the power scenario and the status of implementation of various State and Central schemes.
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