Work on stadium to begin after decision on land issue: Sadhotra

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 5: Minister for Planning, Labour and Development, Ajay Kumar Sadhotra said that the work on sports stadium at Thandapani was taken up for which Rs. 1 lakh was provided by the concerned MLC during the year 2011-12. However, Forest Department claimed the proposed piece of land for construction of Stadium pertains to them. The construction work on the project was stopped and the land issue is yet to be resolved, he added.
He was replying to the question of Ravinder Sharma in upper House. Replying to supplementary of Ghulam Qadir Pardesi the assured that as soon as the land issue is resolved, the construction work on the stadium would be started.
Replying to another question of Vijay Bakaya, the Minister informed that the Government is committed to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the metered areas.  He said due to losses sustained on account of illegal hooking, pilferage and theft resorted to by the consumers; the department has issued curtailment scheduled of 2 hour power supply in metered areas.
The Minister said that in the unmetered and partially metered 11KV feeders, 8 hours normal curtailment is being carried out. The T&D losses are still around 53% which clearly indicate that energy is not billed up to 100% even in metered areas, he added.
Mr. Sadhotra  said that sometimes regular power supply gets affected due to break down and outage of Grid Stations and damages to the system network caused by natural calamities, vagaries of weather, failure of electrical equipment, adding that  all such outages are attended on priority to ensure power supply to all  affected areas.
G. N Monga and B. R. Kundal raised supplementary.
Replying to another question of Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah raised by Dr. Bashir Ahmed Veeri, Mr. Sadhotra said that the power infrastructure in District Kupwara is old, which requires maintenance and improvement.
The Minister informed that HT/LT network improvement scheme has been launched in the State for which an amount of Rs. 20 crore (Rs. 1 crore per district) has been allocated, of which Rs. 0.5 crore per district have been released so far during the current fiscal.
Mr. Sadhotra informed that the aim of the scheme was to replace the rotten poles, un-serviceable/ unauthorized conductors; replacement of un-authorized/ sub-standard line supports with standard poles, replacement of damaged LT cables of distribution transformers, replacement of damaged insulators and damaged earthing of distribution Sub-Stations.
As many as 38 Mohalla/ villages of Kupwara District have been taken up under the scheme during the year 2013-14, he maintained.
The Minister further informed that R-APDRP scheme has been sanctioned for 30 towns of the State for the areas having population 10,000 and above.  He said Handwara and Kupwara towns are also covered under the programme with an estimated cost of Rs. 7.39 cores for each. The provision of Aerial Bunched Cables (ABC) and High Voltage Distribution System (DVDS) in R-APDRP shall help in revamping of distribution system in these areas, he maintained.
Mr. Sadhotra said that the Electricity Tariff in J&K is being determined by Jammu and Kashmir State Electricity Regulatory Commission (JKSERC) which is an autonomous body established under J&K Electricity Act 2010. He said that the Commission fixes tariff of all consumer categories including domestic category in a transparent manner, adding that the monthly bills of electricity charges are issued to the consumers as per the existing electricity tariff approved by J&K SERC.
He further said that there are 17568 domestic, industrial and commercial consumers metered and about 356191 non- metered consumers of all categories in district Kupwara.

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