Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 22: A vital Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached between Jammu and Kashmir Government and National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) under which Dul Hasti power projected was executed by the NHPC in Kishtwar district, has been missing from all Government offices in Jammu and Kashmir including Governor’s Secretariat, General Administration and Power Development Departments.
Significantly, Dul Hasti is one of the power projects, whose return has been sought by the State Government from the Centre. Uri project is the another one followed by others.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Incharge Power Development Department, today announced in the Legislative Assembly that he would take up the matter with the Government of India and investigate the matter further though a high-level probe has already been conducted into the issue.
The issue figured in the Legislative Assembly in response to a written question as well as supplementaries raised by CPM MLA from Kulgam MY Tarigami. He said very “vital and significant’’ Dul Hasti Agreement has been missing from the State Government offices and has not been traced despite lapse of several years but the Government hasn’t fixed any responsibility for the “major lapse’’ so far.
Responding to him, Dr Nirmal Singh said the State Government will take up the issue with Centre Government afresh and hold investigations.
In written reply to Tarigami, the Deputy Chief Minister admitted that there was no agreement of MoU available with the State Government on terms and conditions under which Dul Hasti Power Project was executed by the NHPC.
“A Cabinet Sub Committee was earlier constituted to look into various issues arising from terms and conditions of entrustment of the Hydro-electric projects to the NHPC in the State. The Committee too couldn’t find any agreement or MoU under which Dul Hasti project was entrusted to NHPC for execution,’’ Dr Singh said, adding that on the basis of Cabinet Sub Committee report, a Task Force of senior officers of the State was constituted to look into circumstances leading to misplacement of records and fix responsibility for lapses.
Quoting Task Force report, Dr Singh said, the relevant records were found missing from all concerned offices i.e. Power Development Department, General Administration Department and the Governor’s Secretariat. He added the Task Force concluded that the misplacement of the records appeared to be “deliberate act’’ but couldn’t fix responsibility for its misplacement as the records were around four decades old and no handing/taking over of records had taken place.
‘‘The matter is being pursued with Ministry of Power, Government of India and NHPC,’’ Dr Nirmal Singh said.
Asserting that the flagship schemes have been launched to achieve round-the-clock power supply for all by 2019, Dr Singh said it was actively pursuing with the Centre the transfer of power projects to the State.
“The Government is actively pursuing the transfer of power projects as it is an important part of the developmental agenda of the present coalition Government,” he added.
Replying to separate written questions of legislators, M Y Tarigami (CPM), Vikar Rasool (Congress) and Dr Krishan Lal (BJP) in the Assembly, the Deputy Chief Minister said the revised PMRRP envisaged achieving 24×7 power for all by 2019 and ensuring physical autonomy of J&K for a new era of development.
“Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu in his power budget in the year 2015-16, has clearly mentioned that the Government would actively pursue transfer of hydropower projects from NHPC and that year’s budget provided funds for meeting the operational and maintenance cost of such power projects to be transferred,” he said.
In March 2016, Dr Singh said, he along with the Finance Minister met the then Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal formally and impressed upon the Centre the need for transfer of power projects of Dul Hasti and Uri from NHPC to the State among other important issues of the power sector.
“Subsequently, this has been raised in various Power Ministers’ conferences by me,” he said.
Listing the reasons forcing power cuts in peak winters and summer seasons in Kashmir and Jammu, respectively, the Deputy Chief Minister said against registered 3,101 MW load, the demand should not exceed 1,551 MW, but it is around 2,950 MW (un-restricted) that reflecting that there exists huge unregistered load.
He said the use of unauthorized load creates system constraints by way of overloading the system at transmission, sub-transmission and at distribution levels, thereby causing further distress cuts in addition to the scheduled cuts.
He said because JKPDD has sufficient capacity available at all transmission levels, vis-a-vis total load registered, it makes sufficient power available for its consumers as per their contract demand.
He said various Centrally Sponsored Schemes have been launched to meet the future load growth and to improve the power supply qualitatively and quantitatively.
Listing flagship schemes launched to overcome chronic problems at various levels, Dr Singh said Re-structured Accelerated Developmental Programme (R-APDRP) has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 151.99 crore under part-A and Rs 1,665.27 crore under part-B.
“It is aimed at strengthening, upgrading and renovating sub-transmission and distribution network, adoption of IT application for meter reader, billing and energy accounting, in 30 identified towns of the state, including 17 of Kashmir division, 11 of Jammu division and 2 of Ladakh region,’’ he added.
Responding to another part of the question, he said energy mapping and energy auditing is subservient to 100 percent metering at all voltage levels.
“To achieve 100 percent metering at Sub-Transmission level and Distribution level the department has put in its efforts,” he said.
He said with meager resources, Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department has been able to bring down the T&D losses from 61.58 per cent in 2011-12 to 52.87 per cent in 2016-17.
He said that with the launch of various Centrally Sponsored flagship schemes which are primarily reform centric, it is projected that the present high T&D losses shall be appreciably reduced post execution of these schemes.
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