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| PDD fails to privatize electricity bill distribution in J&K | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 25 : Plan of government to privatize electricity bill distribution and revenue collection in urban centres of Jammu and Kashmir about two years back failed to take off due to red-tapism which mars functioning of Power Development Department (PDD).
Officials said that though government is talking about privatization of revenue collection and has engaged consultant Price Water House Cooper for restructuring of the department, including its unbundling and corporatization but even this small project did not move beyond the planning stage. Manpower shortage is a major challenge when it comes to deal with the consumers in Jammu and Kashmir. Under the plan, department had decided to give franchise to local youth, to ensure that recovery process is streamlined. Nearly 100 youth were trained to handle the field work such as bill distribution, meter reading and preparing the list of defaulters by the government so that they can provide a helping hand to department in curbing the electricity theft, but project failed because officials never took it seriously.
As per the model, these franchise were not to deal with cash and consumers had to pay their bills in banks, their role was to assist the field staff of PDD to keep an eye on their respective areas and how people use the electricity.
PDD has the staff strength of nearly 30,000 but as there has been no reorganization in past three decades and expansion of the infrastructure, it is proving insufficient to deal with the consumers. Most of the maintenance work is already dependent on daily wagers to keep the electricity supply running in the state.
Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses has shown an substantial increase in past decade. The losses have increased from 46.98 % in 2005-06 to 61.31 % in the financial year 2010-11, with State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) blaming it mostly on the theft by the consumers. "The reason for high level of T&D losses is the practice of rampant hooking of LT lines across the State which is not being properly checked by the Department. Even where meters are installed, various means are adopted by a large number of consumers for tampering the meters", said an official. |
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