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| Scandalous PDD installs faulty meters, causes losses worth crores | | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Feb 25: Power Development Department which is known for engineering holes in the State exchequer, has caused yet another dent by deciding to replace just installed substandard meters which are easily tempered mostly by the PDD field staff, with yet another consignment of meters procured at the cost of about Rs 75 crores.
The PDD known for its dis-service to the people on whole, instead of installing capacitors on receiving stations and even on distribution transformers as was repeatedly envisaged in the reports of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and its counterpart in the State, started fresh metering in the already metered areas citing substandard quality of the already installed meters as the reason. However, the department forgot for a while that when it started the installation of meters two years back the meters were advertised as being 'the best' and tamper-proof. The department very clandestinely and instead of admitting its fault started fresh metering in the State for a whooping amount of Rs 75 crores while as the previously installed meters were procured for Rs. 59 crores and an equal amount was spent on their installation.
Astoundingly the PDD engineers who had okayed their procurement earlier and the contractors who supplied these easily tampered meters (which was not less than a gold-mine for both), are once again repeating the same nexus with the overplayed rhetoric that the fresh lot of meters is absolutely tamper-proof and can arrest the trend of power theft. But the tall claims of PDD proved hoax as there are hundreds of instances to quote suggesting that the fresh installed meters are not working properly particularly during poor voltage. Despite the fact that crores of rupees were spent on procurement and crores more on their installation, the newly installed meters are not functioning properly and hundreds of such meters have been tampered by the PDD officials themselves charging Rs. 2000 to 4000 for tampering each meter. It is the employees of the PDD who take money from the people and teach them tricks of tampering.
However, PDD hierarchy, which is well aware of the conduct of its field staff, is party to the messy situation in the department. On the other hand it is actually the PDD officials at the top level who order and procure meters that don't work as desired.
Thus the initiative that cost the State exchequer more than Rs 2 hundred crores has not only failed to yield desired results but has open floodgate for power theft in the State. So the losses to the State exchequer caused due to the criminal act of PDD are many-sided. On one hand procurement of substandard meters has resulted in losses to the tune of Rs 200 crores, on the other hand the Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses have gone up to 76% which means that the PDD is realizing power tariff just for 24% of the total power supplied and last but not least PDD is embezzling hundreds of crores released by the Union Power Ministry through its subsidiaries for installation of efficient capacitors in the State to arrest the power theft.
And on the other hand installation of capacitors could have generated reactive energy making the State at least self reliant in that form of energy which again could have saved hundreds of crores. |
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