STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Citizens’ Forum urged Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to establish power transformer bank having 500 such units in Jammu so that in case of need, Power Development Department (PDD) could replace the transformers.
Forum said that it is necessary so that if a transformer is burnt it could be replaced within few hours. “It has been seen that at places of non priority transformers are replaced after 15 days, that too after a great hue and cry. Such unhealthy practice is required to be stopped”, said R.K Chadha, Forum President.
He said that every summer sweltering heat at 40 to 45 degrees makes people spent sleepless nights. Heat strokes and water born diseases out of the unhygienic conditions created in the atmosphere bring extra miseries for the poor people, he added.
Chadha said that it is estimated that last year about 500 power transformers have burnt in Jammu province during the summer months. That is about 125 power transformers burn every week, he alleged.
“The reason explained by department is over loading. At many places department has put 10 times bigger capacity transformers but still these get burnt because of over loading or poor quality equipments”, said Chadha.
He said that the cost of 500 power transformers is not a big amount as far as state and central governments are concerned. “This could provide the much needed respite from sweltering heat”, he added.
S.S Wazir, Retd ADG Police, S.S Lehar, Advocate, Arun Sharma Retd. Chief Engineer, R.K Handa, Retd Vice Chairman JDA, S.R Sudhir (Congress), Nirmal Kamal (BJP), Manjit Manocha, Advocate Aditya Sharma, Kewal Mahajan, J.S Chauhan and Ramesh Mahajan also endorsed the points raised by forum president.