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| Overlooking Chenab, Doda awaits its share of electricity | | | SHARIK NABI
Doda, Dec 14: With the onset of winter the power curtailment schedule has once again become the prime issue for the people of this hilly district. The state government on one side is claiming that it has plenty of water potential to become self reliant in power generation but on the other side the people are put to great inconvenience due to unscheduled power cuts.
It is interesting to mention that out of state’s total power generation of 1650MW, 74 percent of power comes from river Chenab, of which 50 percent is generated from Baglihar (450MW) and Dul-Hasti (390MW) hydel projects situated in erstwhile Doda district.
In addition to this, Pakal-Dool 1000MW, Budsar 1200MW (National Project) Kerru 690MW, Karthie 450MW, Rattle 690MW and other minor hydro electric projects have been surveyed over this river but still people of this belt had to stay in dark. This power curtailment has gained so significance that political parties have taken it as political agenda and are speaking of frequently.
It is worth to mention that though the power curtailment is only for nine and a half hours, but at most of the times it crosses 13 to 14 hours a day.
People here question why only Doda is being subjected for these faults. In Bhaderwah it is alleged that being former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s constituency it has given privilege to have less curtailment and least faults there. It is also said that the staff employed to exercise the curtailment schedule were also from Bhaderwah and are discriminating with other areas.
Jahangir Iqbal, a shopkeeper said that on a daily account he is spending Rs 10 for lightening his shop in addition of his monthly power bill. Complaining about the timing of the power schedule, he said that it is so wrongly calculated that during shopper’s prime time power remains off.
When contacted, the Executive Engineer Doda Division R R Kotwal said that due to over load and road construction fault usually occur. However, he denied any kind of discrimination with other areas.
Abdul Majid Wani, candidate from Doda constituency, said that if elected he would look into this problem and ensure adequate power supply to the area. |
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