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| Finally, Govt wakes up to Jammu’s failed power reform schemes | | Admin dismayed over putting such central projects in limbo without remorse | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 27: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday seems to have woken up from the deep slumber as it has finally paid its attention towards plethora of important power reformation schemes of Jammu that were till date kept in limbo, leaving the inhabitants of the region in absolute perturbation.
On Monday, the government convened a meeting to review power scenario in Jammu division and implementation of various centrally sponsored schemes under JPDCL projects.
Insiders reveal that serious concern was expressed over the inordinate delay that has been done in the implementation of these schemes by the governments in the past and how ruthlessly central grants were made to lapse with absolute impunity. The government has also expressed dismay over present status of Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) and several other schemes.
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.
Further, the failure of the implementation of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) a failure in Jammu and Kashmir was also discussed at threadbare.
As the transmission and distribution losses mount in the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the consumers bearing the brunt of load shedding, the scheme was launched amid much fanfare with the aim to reduce the T&D losses.
For the first phase of the project, the Central government had sanctioned Rs.151.99 crores under R-APDRP while an amount of Rs 1665.27 crores had been approved for the second phase of this vital project. These schemes were proposed to be taken up under National Electricity Fund for which Rural Electrification Corporation is the nodal agency. Under this scheme 30 towns have been identified as project areas in J&K with population of above 10,000 as per 2001 census. For this purpose, the government had already taken a pilot exercise and some 30 towns have been identified as project areas in J&K, another 283 towns with population of over 4000 have also been identified that will be covered in the second phase. Phase-1 of 283 towns is to cost Rs 171.61 crores and Phase-2 will cost Rs 1073.33 crores. These projects were proposed to be taken up under Phase-II of R-APDRP through a special dispensation which could not materialize. As the deadline for the completion of the project was set as March 31, 2018, more than a year has passed since then- thanks to the non-serious approach of the previous coalition that the scheme was virtually buried under its own debris. |
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