Bijay Charak
JAMMU, Oct 29: The tall claims of former Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah for bringing revolution in energy sector by tapping solar energy have seemingly dashed to ground as there is no caretaker of defunct Energy Park and Solar Plants installed in various hospitals and educational institutions. One such example is the energy park at Government Degree College, Bhaderwah, which was set up in 2010 to meet the requirement of power during curtailment hours but it has become defunct within one year of its establishment. Sources in the department informed Early Times that after only one year of its establishment, the energy park had stopped working and despite repeated communications to the concerned department, none of the official had bothered to repair it.
"Ministry of New and Renewable energy, Government of India, had sanctioned a district level energy park for the Bhaderwah Degree College, to create awareness amongst the student community about the uses and benefits of renewable energy. But surprising it has become defunct after one year of its establishment," the sources added. Sources further said that most of the renewable energy devices, which were installed in the college, including improved Chula, biogas plant, SPV street lights, SPV domestic lights, SPV lanterns, SPV color TV, SPV pump, Solar educational kit, solar cooker, SWHS 200 LPD, solar Cabinet dryer, Solar 3 LPD, were lying defunct. "Only four street lights and one office light of the institution blinks sometimes," sources informed. "The total cost of the plant may be in lakhs but it has failed to serve any purpose as the devices have gone out of order after a one year", an official said, adding that the only job of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy was to install solar plants and make payments to contractors. None of the representatives of the company, which had installed the energy park, had visited the institution, sources said. During his tenure as New and Renewable Energy Minister, Farooq used to boast of such projects and say that these were the best and the cheapest sources of energy. When contacted, Bhaderwah GDC Principal, Prof Raina said that they had repeatedly asked the concerned authorities for repair and maintenance of the energy park. "An official of Science and Technology department had also visited the institution a few months back but till date we have not got any reply from him", he added. |
