SRINAGAR, May 22: The Jammu and Kashmir Government has drawn flak for the electricity crisis in the state with CPI(M) today criticising its failures in augmenting supply even as it slammed a recent move to hike the power tariff.
The state unit of CPI(M) today said that the Omar Abdullah government’s inability to ensure return of power projects from National Hydroelectric Power Corporation coupled with a failure to start new projects were the main reasons behind the power crisis.
“The (mere) contemplation on return of power projects from NHPC, a complete inertia in terms of starting new power projects and huge transmission and distribution (T&D) losses are responsible for the electricity crisis,” CPI(M) state secretary MY Tarigami said in a statement here.
Referring to comments by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that the state government spends more on purchasing power than what it realises as revenue from consumers, Tarigami said it was not doing any favour to the people of the state.
“If the government cries hoarse for not being able to realise revenues from domestic and commercial consumers, (then) who is to be blamed for that,” Tarigami said.
Talking about the state government’s approval for a fresh hike in power tariff, Tarigami slammed the decision as an “unjustified” one which should be revoked at once.
“The fresh hike of around 8 per cent in the power tariff has hit lakhs of consumers in the state who have witnessed unprecedented and arbitrary hikes in the past few years,” he said.
“Power situation in rural areas continues to be grim… The government’s decision of increasing the tariff is bereft of logic as the power department is yet to improve power supply in rural areas,” he added.
Tarigami also hit out at the government for seemingly being in “deep slumber” over the question of staff shortages in the Power Development Department (PDD).
“Around 6,000 PDD posts are lying vacant across all categories. Why has the government not filled these posts, which are an essential component of the revenue recovery section,” he said.
Reminding the government of its commitment made with PDD daily-wagers who had called off a 57-day-long ‘pen down, tool down’ strike in February 2010, Tarigami asked “what happened to the assurance that their demands, including for regularisation, would be met by March 31, 2012”.
He called for immediate regularisation of all those daily wagers and casual labourers who have completed seven years of service in the department and other engineering departments. (PTI)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel