Omkar Dattatray
The electricity woes are increasing day by day with the approach of autumn season in both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir and the people face untold sufferings and inconvenience due to the hide and seek of electricity. With the approach of the autumn season the electricity scenario is worse as the people are facing scheduled and unscheduled power cuts thus compounding the woes of the consumers .The position is same in both the metered and unmetered areas and the people are under the grip of severe power crisis and they feel pain of not having electricity and parting of the excess money for the use of same power. The government has without any reason and justification raised electric traffics without any improvement in the electricity situation. These days’ consumers in both Jammu and Kashmir are being cheated and deceived by the PDD and the power corporation because they are facing worse electricity crisis as the people have to remain without electricity in normal times as well as in peak hours. One fails to understand as to what is wrong with electricity and why the people are being put to great inconvenience in the absence of the required electricity. Despite the installation of smart meters in majority of the areas, the power situation has not changed, but is deterioting with each passing day and putting the innocent consumers to hardships .There is no one to rescue the consumers from the worse power situation. In summer, hot and humid season, there was some improvement in the power scenario but with the onset of autumn and fast coming winter, the power is conspicuous by its absence as there are scheduled and unscheduled power cuts which are troublesome and inconvenient for the public. While the PDD and power corporation assured the consumers that there will be improvement in power scenario, but on the ground instead of any improvement, the electricity situation has become worse as the consumers are now subjected to unscheduled power cuts, thus proving the fact that power situation is haywire and consumers are faced with the worse electricity crisis. Government is planning to privatize the power sector only to the disadvantage of the power employees but without any improvement in electricity situation. In both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir, people are facing unprecedented power crisis and there seems no way out from the crisis. Both Jammu as well as Kashmir is plunging into darkness due to the failure of electricity. The consumers are paying the power tariffs like the honest men but in turn only get the scant power with the result that all the gadgets of ease which run and operate on power cannot be operated in the absence of electricity and thus the people are forced to spend their time without electricity. One fails to understand as to what for they are paying the inflated electricity bills. On one side the PDD /power development corporation are charging hefty amounts as the power tariff, but on the other side, consumers are reeling into power crisis which is a bad experience for the consumers. A consumer has the right to adequate power but they are provided very scant electricity which is a harrowing experience for the general public. Government has declared both Jammu and Srinagar cities as smart cities which means that the people of these two cities will be provided all the services and civic amenities hassle free, but so far as electricity is concerned, they are not provided electricity uninterruptedly because they face worst power crisis compounding their difficulties in the autumn season in both Jammu as well as in Kashmir. There is no meaning and fun of the smart cities unless power and water is provided to the citizens. Moreover power should be provided uninterruptedly and hassle free. The consumers in both the divisions of Jammu as well as Kashmir face the worst ever power crisis, compounding their troubles because of the absence of adequate electricity. The consumers of both the divisions have right to uninterrupted and continuous electricity, but in actual day to day life they are beset with scant power compounding the woes of the consumers. The consumers fear and are worrisome that the power situation is bad in autumn in Kashmir, what will be in store for them, in the winter when the demand of power increases manifold. Similarly the consumers in Jammu feel betrayed because there is very scant power in this autumn season and in the approaching winter their electricity woes will be compounded if the same electricity position continues because the heaters and geysers are used in winter season. Government cannot wash off its hands because it had constituted Power Corporation and the government is still duty bound to provide uninterrupted electricity to the consumers who pay for it at the higher rates. In fact much ahead of the winter season, the consumers of Jammu and Kashmir are presently facing power crisis. Due to shortage of power the PDD has resorted to power curtailment and frequent unscheduled power cuts. As a result of the power cuts ,the life of the people in both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir has turned into a hell. Due to unscheduled as well as scheduled power cuts, the life of the public is put to a lot of inconvenience and their work gets badly affected. The PDD attribute the bad power situation to low discharge of water from rivers resulting in low power generation from hydroelectric power projects. The government says that power scenario will get improved in a couple of days as they are in the process of purchasing power from UP and other places. It is being hoped that power scenario will improve and the problems of the consumers will come to end. Because of the dry weather conditions from several months and its impact on the generation of electricity, the government should have made arrangement for the purchase of additional electricity from outside the UT to avert the crisis but nothing of that happened with the result the consumers are caught unawares and are subjected to face the brunt of scant electricity. Now the PDD and power corporation are going to purchase 400 MGW of electricity from UP and Delhi and it is hoped that the worst power scenario will be over and adequate power will be made available to the consumers in both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir and consumers will heave a sigh of relief. The PDD should take needed steps in advance of the harsh winter in Kashmir so that the consumers will not suffer for the want of electricity because the power cuts are very troublesome in winter and the government should in advance purchase the needed electricity to tide over the crisis. The public should not suffer in Jammu as well as Kashmir due to the shortage of electricity particularly in autumn and winter season. Power crisis is a bad sign because people were expecting improvement in power scenario as the government had assured improvement in powr position but nothing positive and encouraging happened as the power crisis further worsened. In short the government should come to the rescue of the consumers and purchase the necessary power and tide over the shortage of electricity and provide uninterrupted power to consumers in both Jammu and Kashmir so that the people will feel some relief from power crisis. It is hoped that the shortage of power and power crisis will soon end with the purchasing of the needed power from outside so that people will not be troubled anymore.
(The author is a columnist,
social and KP activist).