| 3 years on, electricity Ombudsman lost in oblivion | | T&D losses refuse to climb down | | Akshay Azad
Jammu, Sept 9: Notwithstanding the fact that Transmission and Distribution losses in Jammu and Kashmir are at alarming high, but Power Development Department (PDD) has so far failed to appoint much awaited "Appointment of Forum for Redressal of Grievances of Consumers" commonly called as Electricity Ombudsman, after the lapse of more than three years, since the issuance of notification in this regard.
Sources informed Early Times that the Union Power Ministry has been repeatedly asking the state to increase revenue from electricity, bring down power purchase bill and Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses, which were currently around 60 to 65 per cent, but the state government has failed to materialize proposed remedial steps, including appointment of Electricity Ombudsman.
"Under Jammu and Kashmir Electricity Act 2010, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) on June 10, 2010 had issued a notification for appointment of Electricity Ombudsman and its secretariat but for the last three years, the file has been moving from one table to another at civil secretariat", sources said.
"The file for the appointment of Electricity Ombudsman was on August, 29, 2013 was returned by Finance department to PDD department. "The file was sent to Finance department by PDD for getting financial concurrence and recently the file has been returned. It is yet not clear that whether the financial concurrence has been accorded or not", sources said.
They further informed that the file was forwarded by Finance department to PDD. "On the same day when the file was returned by Finance department, same was sought by Principal Secretary but so far the status of file is not known", sources said.
They further said that around eight months back, the Finance department had returned the same file, raising a query that if Bijli Adalats have already in place across state, then what was the need for constitution of another institution for same purpose.
"After proper deliberation over the query raised by Finance, the PDD department on February 18, 2013, had once again send the file clarifying the need of the Ombudsman, in-spite of availability of Bijli Adalats" sources said.
Castigating the careless approach of functioning of various departments, an official pleading anonymity said that at one hand state government always cried hoarse over ever increasing transmission and distribution losses but the proposed remedies were nowhere in sight.
According to Jammu and Kashmir Electricity Act 2010, the territorial limits of Electricity Ombudsman shall extend to the whole of Jammu & Kashmir. The Electricity Ombudsman is to be provided with a Secretariat, whose expenses shall be paid out of the Fund constituted under section 80 of the Act.
Despite repeated attempts to contact Additional Secretary of PDD, Sheetal Nanda, she didn't pick up her phone. |
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