It appears that the Government has giving power production and supply the importance it deserves. Maybe recurring protests by consumers and the threatening situation that is likely to grow out of power deficit might have prompted the Government to take up the problem on priority basis.The assertions of the Government in this regard are reassuring and a ray of hope appears that after undergoing years and years of power woes our State will heave a sigh of relief… The Chief Minister was reviewing the status on various power generation projects at the 65th Board of Directors meeting of Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC). The meeting was attended by high ranking officers of Power Development Corporation and the concerned sections of bureaucracy.
From what has been said by the Chief Minister and endorsed more elaborately by the senior ranking authorities of the State Power Development Corporation, it appears that a multi-pronged policy is being adopted to mitigate the problem of power deficit. Other than using the conventional hydroelectric production schemes launched at various feasible points in all the three regions of the State, the Government intends to put into service the thermal and solar energy to produce adequate power. The Planning Commission seems to have requisitioned the services of the coal ministry and the ministry of renewable energy as well. All these efforts need to be coordinated to produce the desired result. Of course thee schemes will take their own time.
However, in this process a few observations need to be made. Firstly, our hydroelectric power projects hardly maintain the time schedule and are delayed for one or the other reason. This leads to cost escalation and leaves space for corruption and blackmailing. People begin to lose trust in the PDD. For a developing state this is not a healthy sign. The second woe is of loss in transmission and revenue realization. A good percentage of power is lost owing to obsolete and out of dated transmission lines. Since our transmission lines are not laid underground, chances of more loss in the transmission are there and cannot be helped. There is great need to curtail losses in the transmission of power. The third woe is of power theft. Governments have been complaining of power theft. Despite installation of meters in large parts of consumer segment, there still is large scale power theft. It has two factors. One is that unscrupulous officials of the PDD are conniving at the theft of power by the consumers because they get pecuniary benefits. Even the electric meters are made dysfunctional and unserviceable evidently with the connivance of the linemen. Secondly, there are still at least one third of consumers in the State who are using electricity without meters being installed in their homes or work places. We can add one more category of people who are party to power filtration. We have a large Army of influential political leaders, their henchmen, bureaucrats and powerful business houses who either do not pay any fee at all or pay only a fraction of it. In this way they cause big loss to the State Exchequer.
It has also come to the notice of general public that we have many Government Departments and officials against whom lakhs of rupees are outstanding by way of electric fee. They never paid the fee for the quantity of electricity consumed and as they are powerful, smaller officials do not have the courage to report cases against them. Even after several notices are issued to them by the PDD, they are not bothered. There has to be accountability and cases of pilferage have to be registered against them. We are of the opinion that if the Government authorities take these remedial measures, power supply situation can improve considerably. Why should not the government impose fine on defaulters by way of charging interest on the money defaulted? Punitive measures have to be taken if the people do not obey the law. The law must come into motion. The last remedial measure would be that of accountability. Officials of the department who have raised properties disproportionate to their income should be made answerable to the public authority.
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