J&K's Chief Secretary directs officers to recover power dues from influential defaulters [details]

As the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir stands at number two in power thefts due to influential defaulters, the administration has started an aggressive campaign to control Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses.

Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, in a high-level meeting, impressed upon the officers of the Power Development Department (PDD) to run a large-scale campaign to make people aware of the judicious use of electric appliances.

Giving a clear message to the officers to take action against influential defaulters, the Chief Secretary said that the overall AT&C losses should be brought down to less than 20% in the UT.
Presently AT&C losses in J&K are 59.28 percent which is the second highest after Nagaland.

He emphasized having a proper mechanism to redress the grievances related to the billing of consumers. He told them to fix Electric Division-wise targets for demand side management. He emphasized enhanced enforcement for the reduction of distribution losses and metering of power connections.

Losses suffered on power purchases exceeded more than Rs 3500 crore annually in J&K.

The Chief Secretary stated that losses suffered on power purchases exceed more than Rs 3500 Crore annually with previous liabilities piling up with each passing year.

He reiterated that these resources belong to our people and should optimally be utilized in the creation of jobs for youth or other welfare measures for the people of J&K.

He observed that people should be sensitized about the same through massive outreach campaigns and this gap in power purchase and revenue realization should be minimized for the general good of the masses particularly the educated youth of the UT.

The Chief Secretary also emphasized making the flat rates less attractive so that people prefer switching to metering for their power connections. He observed that most of people are ready to pay for their consumption. The new mantra should be 100 percent payment and 100 percent electricity. He made out that people who clear their dues regularly deserve to be provided quality power around the clock.

August 2023 is the deadline to install smart meters

The Chief Secretary further exhorted the officers that the smart metering of all the urban areas of the UT should be completed by August this year. He asked them to establish dedicated enforcement teams in each circle to ensure proper monitoring and surveillance of the consumers.

Over 1 lakh power connections disconnected till February

The Principal Secretary, PDD, Rajesh Prasad apprised the meeting that the Department has conducted 166,134 inspections in the UT thereby imposing a penalty of Rs 15.03 crore and making 133,534 disconnections of erring customers till February this year. In addition, the Department has recovered Rs Rs 54.92 Cr in the shape of arrears from both domestic and commercial consumers.

As far as bringing efficiency in the distribution system is concerned, the Department is going to implement the projects worth Rs 5641 crore sanctioned by the Government of India under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) to install the smart meters to the tune of Rs 1046.71 crore and carry out other loss reduction works to the tune of Rs 4595.20 crore. The completion of these projects are going to greatly reduce AT&C losses further thereby making additional energy available to Department for providing 24x7 quality power supply to consumers across J&K.

J&K second in "power thefts" across India

As reported earlier Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is still number two in power thefts. After Nagaland, Jammu, and Kashmir recorded huge AT&C losses during the last five years.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, R K Singh recently said that line losses in electrical networks are predominantly due to ohmic (heat) loss.
Nagaland has the highest number of 60.69 percent AT&C losses followed by Jammu and Kashmir with 59.28 percent AT&C losses.

The Minister said that the pilferage of electricity is one of the several reasons for AT&C's losses of the power distribution utilities.

During the first week of this month, the Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) launched a drive against the influential and chronic defaulters and disconnected 1156 electricity connections including that of former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and President of J&K BJP Ravinder Raina and several government departments.