With 278% increase, PDD now among top 3 in country in growth in digital transactions: Kansal

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 19: Digital transactions in J&K PDD recorded an increase of 278.77%in the first quarter of the present year over the corresponding period last year. A total of 3.08 lakh digital transactions were recorded in July 2021 alone and a sum of Rs. 35.04 crores was collected via digital mode by the DISCOMS from the consumers.
This was revealed at a meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal, at Data Centre Bemina, Srinagar to review the progress of various IT projects being carried out for in the power sector and for strengthening IT and Communication Services in the Corporations.
The meeting discussed various aspects and issues related to implementation of Information Technology in JKPDD, status and progress achieved in various ongoing projects under RAPDRP, SCADA, RT-DAS, installation of smart metering, Feeder Metering, UID of Distribution Transformers, Billing & Collection, Customer Care, JKPDD e-support.
Addressing the meeting, Rohit Kansal called for adoption of e-bills across all categories of customers. He directed the officers of PDD to encourage people to opt out of physical bills and move completely to e-bills. He said that this would not only ensure a faster billing process, but would also enable greater transparency and better complaint resolution. He directed the DISCOMS that to promote paperless bills and digital payments a special campaign should be launched across all websites and billing platforms to encourage and motivate consumers to adopt paperless bills. He also directed that to further ease the billing process, a single account needs to be created so that the customers who do not use digital means can pay their monthly bills at any branch of the bank over the counter.
Maintaining that customer satisfaction should be top priority of the department, he impressed upon the officers for integrating customer care numbers in a single call centre for better resolution of complaints through a unified software.
Principal Secretary also directed that grievance redressal mechanism should be made more prompt and all the grievances received through other means apart from social media platforms too must be integrated with the call centre. He also said that regular monitoring of progress of the call centre should be done regarding the complaints received and their disposal and MIS reports of complaints should be forwarded to his office on monthly basis and regular monitoring should be done at other levels.
Maintaining that all the websites of JKPDD have to be compliant and consistent with Government standards, he said that all the websites of PDD should be parented to the main website. He further added that consumer oriented services should be available across all the websites of PDD and all should be cross linked.
Regarding the completion of various projects like SCADA, he said that it is a prestigious project and has to be completed within the stipulated time frame.
He directed the officers to work out a perspective plan for upgradation of IT systems and phase it out based on the need and vulnerability of existing systems and processes. He also directed them to make solid use of e-support as it is a one stop shop for all DISCOMs related activities.
The meeting was attended by Chairman JPDCL, Jagmohan Sharma, MD KPDCL, Basharat Qayoom, Technical Secretary, Bashir Ahmad Dar, Chief Engineers of Kashmir Power Corporations Aijaz Dar, Yousuf Baba and senior officers of both Jammu and Kashmir divisions.