Local grid management
We have developed the psychosis of negative approach when we are dealing with and commenting on the performance of different departments of the administration. We think that the Government deserves only brickbats and no bouquets for something which the Government does but does not want to publicize just because it takes most of its achievements as normal functioning. One such example is to be found when we deal with the power situation in the State. There is hardly a media source that does not come out heavily against the Government accusing it of inefficiency, corruption and mismanagement of PDD. We don’t mean to say that everything is all right with the PDD, but one recent instance that has come to fore shows that there is a bright side of the picture as well.
This week there was a massive collapse of three power grids in Northern and North Eastern India which sent 21 States including Delhi into darkness for two days. Never before has such a massive collapse happened. J&K State also faced power cut owing to the fact that the State is tied up to the Northern Grid. But while the engineers struggled for 24 hours to restore power to the national grid, J&K State PDD, the portfolio of which is in the hands of the Chief Minister, managed to restore power at least to one third of consumers within a short period of two and a half hours. It was nothing short of a miracle, and how did it come about? That story should not be left untold, if we mean to be fair to the PDD and the administrative structure taking care of power supply in the State. It will be recalled that on 6-7 January last, there was power collapse in the Kishanpur-Wagora transmission line causing serious problem to the people in the valley during sever winter days. The State Government had to approach the Union Ministry of Power to extend technical help in rectifying the snag and it was done, But the Chief Minister, who holds the power portfolio as well, conscious of more mishaps in transmission in future, took up the matter with the then Union Minister of Power. The Minister called a meeting of experts in which representatives of PDD, NHPC and others deliberated on the issue. The Chief Minister had desired that a mechanism be evolved which would allow State to manage power crisis by re-alignment to local grid and dispensing with the national grid in a situation of emergency. The expert committee held three meetings in which technical aspects of commissioning local grid in times of need were deliberated upon. These deliberations were highly useful for our engineering cadres to learn how in case of emergency the State could manage restoration of power through local grid within shortest possible time. This experience stood our engineers in good stead and when power crisis happened this week on a massive scale, they were able to use the technology and skills, and restored partial power within just two and a half hours. This is a commendable achievement and indicates that our engineers are capable of making our power dependence on national grid reduced to minimum. The Chief Minister has already given vent to ideas of non-dependence on national power grid which means that full attention is to be paid to power production within the State. The State has the capacity and capability to achieve that goal but it depends on a number of things like technical expertise, availability of skilled manpower, funding, curtailing of bureaucratic procedures and above all cooperation from the massed of people. The people need to understand the importance and indispensability of electric power for the development of the State. Misuse of power or its pilferage is not acceptable. If the Government comes down with a heavy hand once it feels it must, and certainly it will, people will have no reason to complain. Let us, therefore, have faith in our power managers, their capabilities and professionalism and hope that we shall be able to overcome this recurring problem sooner than later. The State can never have one more chance of a Government and a Chief Minister in particular paying so much of attention to power development and distribution. Therefore let us take the time by forelock. We cannot afford to miss these opportunities.
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