STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Minister of State for Power, Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi on Saturday said that Rs 66.61 crore have been spent on repair of 24334 transformers damaged/burnt during the last two years across the State. These include 13,409 in Kashmir, 10,685 in Jammu and 240 in Ladakh region.
Replying to a question by Ali Mohammad Sagar in the Legislative Assembly, the minister said that major cause of damage of these transformers is excessive load by consumers.
“The department has been making efforts to check excess/unauthorised use of load and power theft by the consumers as the enforcement squads are conducting frequent inspections,” the minister added.
Giving details of the transformers installed during the last two years, the minister said that 2,055 transformers were installed across the State including 849 in Kashmir, 1,171 in Jammu and 35 in Ladakh.
Regarding the shortage of power supply in the State, and measures initiated to improve it, the minister said that the government is making concerted efforts to improve the overall power scenario in the State for which several long term measures have been taken.
The indiscriminate use of gadgets, especially during the peak hours in violation of agreed load leads to the breakdown of system with the result the department is constrained to impose cuts. The improvement in power supply is based on the load management, accountability and compliance from the consumers, said the Minister.
Responding to another query, the minister informed that 42 cases of theft of 25 KVA transformers were reported in Anantnag district during 2011, for which the FIRs stand lodged with the concerned Police Stations.
Mian Altaf, Abdul Majid Larmi and Devender Singh Rana raised the supplementary questions relating to power scenario in their respective constituencies and called upon the government to take immediate measures to strengthen the power infrastructure to improve the supply position.
