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| Where does all the electricity go? | | Jammu region pays revenue five times higher, Srinagar alone consumes more than 10 distts | |
Early Times Special
JAMMU, August 3: The summer capital city of Srinagar alone consumes more electricity than whole of the 10 districts of Jammu put together. During the year 2008-09, the Srinagar district consumed 1.90 billion units.
In contrast, all the 10 districts of the Jammu region, including Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar collectively consumed only 1.87 billion units of power, according to official figures.
Overall, the consumption of the Kashmir valley is over five billion units per annum, more than two and a half times as compared to the Jammu region, according to papers presented by Power Minister Omar Abdullah in the Legislative Assembly a couple of days ago.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the power portfolio, gave this information on a question asked by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chaman Lal Gupta. In the same reply, the CM also admitted that the collection of revenue in the Jammu region is far higher than in the Kashmir Valley.
The written reply by the CM said that the total revenue collection from the Jammu region during the last financial year was Rs 901 crore. In contrast, the entire collection from the Kashmir Valley was only Rs 529 crore.
Since the Kashmir region gets far more power, more than two and a half times as compared to Jammu, the collection from the Valley logically should at least be Rs 2,250 crore. If only the pattern of collections in the two regions followed the same pattern. If this were to happen, the State Government’s woes on account of power purchase would be over as it buys electricity worth approximately Rs 1,900 crore every year, officials in the Power Development Department (PDD) said.
If an impartial view is taken of the whole scenario, it can be said that the people in Jammu collectively pay five times more for the electricity consumed than the residents of the Kashmir Valley.
At another level, we can also say that each consumer in the Jammu region is made to pay approximately Rs 5 per unit for the electricity consumed. In contrast, the Kashmiri consumers pay only a little over Re 1 per unit.
Incidentally, separate figures for collection from the Srinagar district are not readily available. But the PDD officials readily admitted that maximum theft of electricity occurs in the Srinagar district only, right under the nose of the CM if you like
Incidentally, Srinagar is now the smallest district, areawise, among all the 22 districts of the state. Before it was bifurcated into Srinagar and Ganderbal during the tenure of Ghulam Nabi Azad, its area was far larger.
Population-wise, Srinagar is the largest district of the Kashmir Valley and is the most densely populated district of the State. In fact, it may sound odd but it is true that the area of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) is larger than the Srinagar district. This is because of the fact that areas like the city airport, which fall in the SMC, are not part of the Srinagar district as they fall in Budgam district.
Some PDD officials said the residents of Srinagar city (which also is the entire district) pay very little, if anything, for the electricity they consume. The collection that goes into the accounts of the Srinagar city largely comes from government offices, security forces and public sector offices etc, they explained.
The government lacks the political will to take a tough stance against the defaulters, some senior officers in the department said. They said the city MLAs put pressure on the PDD officials not to insist on collecting the power dues from the defaulters as an appeasement policy.
Charity begins at home and by being charitable to Srinagar consumers, the CM is only proving this adage to be true as he is himself normally a resident of the city, these officials said.
According to BJP leader Chaman Lal Gupta, even the figures presented in the Assembly are misleading because they do not tell the whole story. For example, the figures do not give details regarding the collections made by the PDD from the government offices themselves. If these figures are collated separately, it will become clear whether the common consumers are paying anything at all, he pointed out.
Industrialists in the Jammu region have for long been requesting the State Government to improve the power supply. They have been clamouring for more power saying they can improve the industrial output and employment if only the government could ensure regular power supply.
They also claimed that if the Jammu region were to be provided over five billion units of electricity per annum, same as the Kashmir Valley, they can contribute at least Rs 3,000 crore to the government kitty annually by way of taxes. Better power availability will also create thousands of jobs in the region, the added.
All this is known to the CM and he has been claiming that his government treats both the Jammu and the Kashmir regions equally or equitably. To prove his claim and redeem his words, he can make a beginning by bringing the revenue realization from the Kashmir Valley on a par with the Jammu region, on a per unit basis.
It is not that Omar doesn’t understand the economics of it all. But in this case, bad economics by way of ignoring massive power thefts by the Valley residents apparently makes for good politics.
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