Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 6: Former Legislator and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vikram Randhawa met Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department (PDD) and raised several important issues of the people especially from rural and border areas pertaining to PDD.
Randhawa said substantial increase in the electricity bills compared to previous years is a concern of consumers.
Randhawa said that the people of rural areas and border belts have no source of income except agriculture and they cannot afford high electricity bills on flat rate basis. They cannot also afford to purchase their own electric meters and smart meters in rural and border belts are to be installed in third phase which may take time. The worrying factor is that the flat-rate bills do not accurately reflect the actual usage. So, the billing on flat rate basis be suspended till metering is done in all areas by the Department, he stated.
Randhawa said that the people of Zero Line are the last ones to get the benefit of any Government scheme and the first one to face the bullets from Pakistan. He requested that the electricity bills of the people of Zero Line (upto 5 kms from border belt) be completely waived off and fresh billing in their cases be initiated.
He added that rural and urban areas are being charged the same rates for the purpose of electricity, while rural areas face long duration cuts. He demanded that different power tariff slabs for urban areas and rural areas with inclusion of Below Poverty Line (BPL) slab for consumers having consumption up to 200 units only. “The farmers of rural and border belts are mostly dependent on two crops during the year and they use pump-sets for few months. But they have to pay electricity bills round the year and demanded that provision for annual or bi-annual billing of pump-set consumers may be kept.
Former Legislator also requested Principal Secretary for deferment of Smart Metering works till Assembly elections are concluded in J&K.
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