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| Power cut schedule in Valley’s metered areas first time in 6 years | | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
EARLY TIMES REPORT
SRINAGAR, Dec 26: Even after importing 720 mws of power from Northern Grid every day and pressing into service two units of gas turbine at Pampore, Power Development Department (PDD) has for the time in six years ordered a heavy load-shedding schedule in most of the metered areas in Srinagar and other major townships across Kashmir valley from today.
With the difference of 10 days, this exactly was the season and weather conditions when Omar Abdullah took over as Chief Minister on January 5th, 2009. Discharge in most of the power generating rivers is exactly that of December 2008. Lesser was the quantity of power generated domestically and imported from Northern Grid. In January 2009, electricity remained off in Valley’s non-metered areas for six hours a day. There was no load shedding schedule in the areas where PDD had installed meters on the houses and commercial units of more than 80% of the consumers.
First time in the last more than six years, PDD today enforced a heavy load shedding schedule in most of the metered areas in Kashmir. In January 2007, then Minister incharge Power, Rigzin Jora, reached on the spot within 10 minutes when consumers in the fully metered Jaawahar Nagar (Government Quarters) complained that electricity had been snapped for about one year. Jora snubbed his Development Commissioner of Power and Chief Engineer Maintenance (Kashmir) and asked them to explain as to who had directed to cut supply to the metered area. Supply was restored within 10 minutes.
Four years after, on December 26, 2010, power remained off in the same Jawahar Nagar areas for 9 hours. PDD officials confirmed that under the orders of DCP and CE Maintenance, power would remain off in all metered areas, including Jawahar Nagar, from 1800 hrs to 2200 once a week, besides 0500 hrs to 0800rs, 0800 hrs to 1300 hrs and 1300 hrs to 1800 hrs on three particular days a week.
Situation is obviously worse in the Valley’s metered areas. As compared to six-hours-a-day, power has been ordered off in all non metered areas for at least 9 hours a day. PDD has introduced a heavy schedule of load shedding for all non-metered areas in the Valley. Consumers, however, have apprehensions that actual schedule of cutting would run for 12 to 16 hours a day---worst ever in recent times.
“In Mufti’s and Azad’s time, bureaucrats used to be either loyal or strictly obedient to the regime. This time around, there’s no such thing. Those removed from prize positions on account of their political loyalty to the opposition, have been imposed on critical departments like power. Officials from top to bottom feel themselves as free of all accountability. They know that a CM like Omar Abdullah would neither understand the reasons behind the power crisis nor take action against them”, said a retired official of PDD. He said that PDD had gone completely awry and there was every possibility of a fresh flare up.
A senior activist of the ruling National Conference (NC) insisted that certain officials were deliberately creating problems so as to generate ill-will and anger against Omar Abdullah-led coalition government. He sensed vested interest even among certain coalition partners who, according to his apprehension, were bent upon showing to their bosses in New Delhi that NC-led government had failed on the governance front.
Knowledgeable sources said that there were more reasons than the conventional factors behind this season’s unprecedented load shedding and erratic power supply. They pointed that at certain district headquarters, particularly Budgam, Ganderbal, Pulwama and Anantnag, officials of PDD had ensured uninterrupted power supply in their residential localities.
These sources pointed out how DCs and other middle rung officials had forced the PDD officials to include their localities as “VIP areas”, meaning that there would be no power cuts. It was pointed out that at Budgam, power remains cut even to essential services like District Hospital but available without any cuts to residences of political and religious leaders besides those of the few officials staying at headquarters. It was also pointed out how junior officials had taken special feeder lines to their houses right from the receiving station to enjoy 24x7 supply while as neighbouring localities with more than 80% metered houses had been subjected to heavy load shedding schedules. Supplies were reportedly erratic even during the period there should have been no breaks.
Officials argue that supply was less than 800 mw as against the winter demand of 1350 mw. They say that total generating capacity in the Valley had shrunk to less than 300 mw including the one generated at NHPC’s Uri project. They sounded optimistic that the situation would drastically improve with the optimum output of gas turbine that has been put on under the Chief Minister’s orders last week. |
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