1082 Domestic, Commercial Connections Disconnected Non-Payment: KPDCL

Jammu: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today chaired a review meeting on the overall Power supply situation in the UT of Jammu Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Sh. H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department; Sh Santosh D Vaidya, Principal Secretary Finance Department; Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor and other senior officials.
Detailed discussions took place on various aspects to meet the high electricity demand in both Kashmir and Jammu Division.
During the meeting, the Lt Governor asked the Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, H. Rajesh Prasad for strict compliance of curtailment plans, uninterrupted and quality power in 100% smart metered feeders and timely replacement of damaged transformers to avoid any inconvenience to the people. He said the team on the ground must closely monitor the situation and take proactive actions to meet the peak electricity demand.
The Lt Governor also took appraisal of the status of the installation of smart meters, manpower and power infrastructure.
Meanwhile Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) said that it has further intensified its inspection drives across all district of Kashmir Division to check incidents of hooking and power theft, which are primarily responsible for power outages and distress cuts.
As many as 566 drives were conducted across all 19 Electric Divisions and a penalty of Rs.7.84 lakh was imposed on those found hooking wires on bare conductor and bypassing the meters. Meanwhile, 64 Domestic Transformers (DTs) were also reported damaged on Wednesday due to overloading.
Giving details about the inspections conducted, a KPDCL spokesperson today stated that 183 drives were conducted in Circle II Srinagar, 60 in Circle I Srinagar, 123 in Circle Ganderbal, 71 in Circle Pulwama, 35 in Circle Bijbehara and 94 in Circle Sopore.
The spokesperson further stated that 1082 domestic, commercial and industrial connections were also disconnected for non-payment of energy dues for more than three months. This includes 371 domestic, 549 commercial and 157 industrial consumers.
Exhorting consumers to treat DTs as their own assets, the KPDCL spokesman said 64 DTs were reported damaged across all Electric Divisions. “While those fully damaged are being transported to Central Workshop at Pampore, the rest are being repaired at divisional-level workshops,” he said, adding that KPDCL is committed to replace the damaged transformers within the stipulated timelines.
KPDCL has also urged all domestic, commercial and industrial consumers to pay their long-pending energy dues or face disconnection. “The Corporation is actively pursuing recovery of pending arrears and Rs.8.00 crore were collected on Wednesday alone from the consumers,” he said, adding that KPDCL will make all out efforts to achieve the target of revenue realization fixed by the Government.

KR Desk