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| PDD officers prefer to stay in Jammu | | Power crisis in Valley | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Mar 12: Amidst pressing power shortage in Kashmir valley, senior officers of the Power Development Department prefer to stay in Jammu rather than to available in the valley to mitigate the issues of the people .
People in the valley are facing prolonged power cuts, and department was failing to adhere its power curtailment schedule. At the same time, senior PDD officials are missing from the valley.
"The frequent power cuts have made our lives miserable," Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, a resident of Bemina said. "We have been visiting the Chief Engineer PDD Kashmir office for the last one week but she is not available here," Bhat added.
He said the announcement of additional power to the state did not make any difference. "We used to face 10 hour power cuts before the announcement and face the same," he said.
The PDD has announced a power curtailment schedule. The metered areas are subjected to 21 hours of weekly cut and non-metered 42 hours. However, consumers said that power curtailment schedule was not being followed.
"We get eight hour power supply in a day and power curtailment schedule is not being followed," said Imran, a resident Pampore.
An official of the PDD said that Chief Engineer has gone to Jammu for a meeting. "She has not come back so far," the official said.
The centre in December last year announced an allocation of additional power of 792 MW for Jammu and Kashmir in view of higher demand in winters in the state. However, people say that there has been no improvement in power supply in the valley.
Meanwhile, an official said people were responsible for the power problem in the state.
"People are to be blamed for power problem not the government. Power problem is only due to power thefts," he said. "Upgrading and creation of new infrastructure would not help the state to improvise power until there is 100 percent installation of metres" he added.
"Unless people don't stop power theft, there will be no improvisation in power. People from JK don't hesitate in paying Rs 12,000 as power charges for a flat in New Delhi but here they don't pay Rs 500 for a month here," he added further.
The PDD has projected installation of 11,47,723 metres between 2015 and 2019 in domestic and non-domestic categories and has set up target of 100 percent metering to 2019.
Recently, the government said that energy consumed in Kashmir till December last year was 6,679.930 MU against 6,466.060 MU the previous year, while it was 5,319.684 MU in Jammu in 2017 against 5,239.538 in 2016. |
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