Missed Green Energy Schemes

The latest disclosure in the Rajya Sabha, revealing that Jammu and Kashmir has lost sanctioned allocations under PM-KUSUM and drawn a blank on the National Green Hydrogen Mission and Bioenergy Programme for five consecutive years, is not a stray administrative hiccup. It is the latest chapter in a long and depressing record of the Union Territory's inability to convert Central largesse into tangible outcomes - whether for farmers or for ordinary households. That over half the applicants under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana are still waiting for their rooftop solar systems, more than two years after the scheme's launch, is inexcusable. For a region that suffers crippling power shortages in both summer and winter, the failure to harness household solar generation at scale represents a lost opportunity that cannot be measured in rupees alone. Every unconnected rooftop is a household still dependent on an unreliable grid.

The cancellation of the 20 MW allocation under PM-KUSUM Component-A and the 4,000 solar pumps under Component-C, simply because no progress was reported, should trouble every taxpayer and policymaker in the UT. These were not modest schemes; they were designed to wean farmers off diesel-guzzling irrigation pumps at precisely the moment when the Iran-US conflict has placed fresh strain on global fuel supplies. Continued reliance on diesel pumps, when solar alternatives lie unused on paper, is an avoidable extravagance J&K's farmers and its fuel import bill can ill afford.

None of this can be separated from the deeper rot in J&K's power sector. Decades of investment running into thousands of crores have failed to arrest transmission losses, plug theft, or complete metering across the UT. Power purchase remains hostage to Central subsidies and grants rather than resting on a financially sound distribution system. In such an environment, it is hardly surprising that green energy schemes requiring sustained administrative follow-through - vendor empanelment, DISCOM coordination, farmer outreach - have been allowed to lapse. It's another visible failure on the power front.

The UT Administration cannot keep hiding behind Central data releases and unstarred questions. Accountability must be fixed, from the Power Development Department down to the district level, for allocations lost, targets missed and public money left unutilised. J&K does not lack sunlight, wind or the agricultural need for clean irrigation. What it manifestly lacks is administrative seriousness. That must change, and change quickly, before the next Parliamentary reply tells the same sorry story.