Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Sept 1: Despite Cabinet decision to clear the dues worth crores of firms engaged in repairing of damaged transformers for the Power Development Department (PDD), the Government has released peanut amount of just Rs 2 crore in favour of over a dozen firms against the pending arrears of over Rs 14 crores.
With this, attitude of the Government, majority of the firms expressing anguish, have refused to resume the repair work of transformers and the general public is badly suffering during the humid days as pendency of transformers under repair has increased and there has been sharp rise in the public protests across the region.
Hardly 2 or 3 well-off firms, have resumed work while majority of other private firms are not willing to work under such conditions. They alleged that despite claims of the Chief Minister to release funds, the State PDD authorities have failed to pay their pending arrears worth Rs 12 crore for the last one and half year whereas, the own workshops of the department are unable to take the load of repair work especially during peak summer months.
Authoritative sources told the Excelsior that over 70 per cent repair work of the damaged transformers of PDD was being performed by nearly a dozen odd private firms located at Gangyal, Bari Brahmana, Kathua, Samba and other places in the region besides a few in the Valley. The department had to pay nearly Rs 10 cr as arrears on account of repair/ replacement of damaged power transformers to the private firms engaged for the work as on March 31, 2013. This amount has now gone up.
These firms are demanding release of their arrears. They had also given representations to the Chief Engineer PDD Jammu, Power Development Commissioner and the concerned Minister of State for Power, but the department failed to release their pending payments. These firms stopped the repair work of damaged transformers in June last but the State Cabinet in a decision in first week of July took decision to release arrears worth Rs 10 crore. But the Government released only Rs 2 crore for the purpose and roped in the firm owners to resume work in view of the peak hot summer season and increasing pressure of public. The pendency period of under repair transformers in Govt workshops also increased, with the result the public suffered badly during hot summer days. The PDD workshops are unable to take such huge load while general public has been left to suffer due to non-payment of arrears of private firms.
B P Bhalla, heading the association of the Transformers Unit holders, said that the Chief Minister in his cabinet meeting announced to release all the pending arrears of the firms engaged by the PDD on July 2, but unfortunately the PDD released only Rs 2 crore in favour of firm holders.
And out of this, the PDD authorities at Jammu released only Rs 1.5 crore. It is just peanut amount, like “Oonth ke Munh Mein Zeera”. The Chief Engineer PDD (M&RE), Jammu Ms Goni persuaded the firm holders and asked to resume work after CM’s announcement. But hardly 2-3 well off firms have resumed work, most of others have refused as they have invested huge amount in repair works and they got almost nothing. They can not afford to continue under such circumstances.
The Government has only befooled the unit holders and PDD’s own workshops are unable to take the pressure of increasing unrepaired transformers. The public cry is on rise and people are unable to get their transformers repaired even after a week or even fortnight, especially in rural areas.
He said remaining 2-3 firms at present working for PDD, have also decided to suspend the work again as they have performed the work of nearly Rs 3-4 crores up to now during this period and now they too, are unable to carry on. At least Rs 12 crore amount of unit holders is still pending with the PDD. Mr Bhalla said transformers repaired in PDD workshops, mostly get damaged even within week, a fortnight or even a month.
In some cases, they get damaged immediately after installation but private firms give one year’s guarantee to the department after repair work. The department needed to set its own house right at first. Some insiders are basically responsible for this mess and non-payment of pending dues of the firms, he maintained.
Reports compiled from various districts in Jammu region have indicated that more than 200 transformers are damaged and pending installations or undergoing repair at various workshops. In district Kathua alone over 25-30 transformers are damaged. The condition in Samba/ Vijaypur is also not so good while in entire Jammu Division of PDD there are total 7600 transformers and nearly 3% to 5 % is said to be the number of average damaged ones.
If this figure of a senior officer is believed, then there will be more than 300 damaged transformers in Jammu alone and over all number of damaged ones in the region will be double as earlier projected. There are three workshops of PDD in Jammu besides another one Central Workshop at Narwal. In many workshops, double shift work is being performed to meet the challenge but even then the pendency of repair/ replacement of damaged transformers has increased from 2-3 days to 5-6 days. Even in some Jammu urban areas where people were getting transformers in 24 hours have now to wait for 48 or even more hours for replacement.
A senior officer in of the PDD disclosed on the condition of anonymity that medium transformers needs at least Rs 75,000 to Rs 80,000 for repair work. Some times the extra transformers kept in the pool for replacement get consumed and long pendency creates problem. The delay in receiving funds is yet another cause because for repair work you need immediate money.
The private firms are engaged to ease the pressure but now they are also facing financial crisis and not getting payments and they too have stopped working for PDD. He said the bills of the private firms were forwarded to the higher authorities. The concern of the private firms has also been communicated after a meeting with them through Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Industries Association Gangyal. He admitted that pendency of the replacement/ repair of damaged transformers has increased and their staff has to work in 2-3 shifts.
With the increase in the humidity, the pendency increases as coils are needed to be dried up for binding. He said May, June, July and August are the peak months and maximum damage is caused during these months. The low voltage and load of ACs/ coolers etc aggravate the damage during these months.
Responding to another question, he said this problem is mostly experienced in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts while the damage is less in other areas like Rajouri, Udhampur or Doda. During winters, the loss is much in these hilly areas as the power consumption goes higher. He said nearly ten odd private firms have been engaged for repair of transformers and with this public was getting better service. Now, entire work is dependent on the own workshops and over fifty per cent work has been hit with almost suspension of work. The Government has agreed to release their arrears in parts and it first cleared the pending bills up to March 2012.
President CCI Jammu Y V Sharma when contacted said that Chamber has assisted them for pleading their case and arrears of more than rupees ten crores were lying pending by the end of March this year. Even last time also, some of their arrears were released with the intervention of Chief Minister. The department has failed to evolve a system and release payments of the industry owners in time.
Many of them have taken loans from banks to run their business. They are unable to invest more as they are not getting even a penny from PDD. It is very difficult for them to survive. He alleged that power is the most essential service but the public has been made to lead a miserable life by the department. There is no accountability and even during festivals curtailments are imposed, which is most unfortunate.
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