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| One by one, schemes for power reforms dying silently in JK | | Blunders of past bear fruits at present | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 29: It is official now, the power generation schemes in Jammu and Kashmir have taken a back seat with centrally sponsored schemes worth crores of rupees neglected, forgotten and ruthlessly undermined by the helmsmen of the past.
After the failure of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) which was announced to reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses in power distribution and management across state utilities, another centrally sponsored scheme namely Deen Dayal Upadhaya Grameen Joyti Yojna (DDUGJY) is on the brink of dead end due to no work executed on ground on this scheme.
DDUGJY was otherwise meant to provide continuous power supply to rural areas of the erstwhile state. The scheme was ought to enable to initiate much awaited reforms in the rural areas. It was set to focus on feeder separation (rural households & agricultural) and strengthening of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure including metering at all levels in rural areas. This would have helped in providing round the clock power to rural households and adequate power to agricultural consumers .The earlier scheme for rural electrification viz. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) has been subsumed in the new scheme as its rural electrification component.
However, as in Jammu and Kashmir, the scheme was approved by the GOI, tenders from the interested parties were invited in April 2016. Much to the embarrassment of the helmsmen in JK, no major contracting firm expressed any interest in taking up the work. Till date not even a single component of the scheme has been implemented in any of the rural area of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. As per insiders, the GOI is all set to block the funds to the state government as it till date has failed miserably in implementing it on ground.
The former finance minister Dr Haseeb Drabu admitted in legislative council that the tenders floated for DDUGJY and other schemes for taking up various power upgradation works in the state have received very poor response. Drabu added that the government is planning to take up all major power works through reputed PSUs on nomination basis to fast-track the upgrading of power infrastructure in the state.
The former minister of state for power, Farooq Andrabi, too jumped into the chorus, and on the floor of the house while replying to a starred question of the legislator said the works under DDUGJY have not been started in any district as yet. The Minister said the partial turnkey tenders of DDUGJY works were initially floated in April 2016 for all districts of South Kashmir but despite granting five extensions, there was no response and finally the tenders were cancelled. However, in a bid to stop the blockade of the central funds and save face, the government here is planning to take up the power works under Deen Dayal Upadhaya Grameen Joyti Yojna (DDUGJY) in the State through reputed Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). |
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