Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 19 : Minister of State for Power, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) Shabir Ahmad Khan today reviewed the functioning of Power Development Department at a high level meeting here today.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Power Development Department Sudanshu Panday, Development Commissioner Power, Manzoor Salroo, Secretary Technical, Asgar Ali, Chief Engineers and other senior officers of PDD of Jammu division.
The Minister took a detailed review of various ongoing schemes, including status of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) projects, upcoming grid stations, installations of 33 KV shunt capacitors and their commissioning. He also reviewed the measures taken by the department to improve the revenue realization across the division.
Mr Shabir directed the officers to redouble their efforts to ensure the time bound completion of all ongoing power infrastructure development projects taken up to overcome the system constraints. He said that the ongoing projects under RGGVY should be completed in time for which adequate funds will be provided.
The Minister stressed for accelerating the collection to ensure achievement of set revenue targets in every electric division.
The Chief Engineer PDD informed the meeting that till ending August the department realised Rs 341.03 crore revenue which is 46.80 percent higher than the corresponding period of the last year.
The CE also apprised that the M&RE wing conducted about 17949 inspections across Jammu division and recovered a fine of Rs 2.98 crore from violators. It was also informed that the about 40246 applications were received under the Voluntary Load Disclosure Scheme (VLDS) in the region and a whopping 100751 KW load was revised by the department .
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary Power Development Department Sudhanshu Panday said that the Voluntary Load Disclosure Scheme was a vital power reform to improve the power scenario in the State and appealed the people to cooperate by availing the amnesty scheme.
Speaking at a seminar on ‘Power Sector Reforms vis-a-vis Voluntary Load Disclosure Scheme (VLDS)’ organised by J&K State Electricity Regularity Commission (SERC) at Indian Institute of Public Administration, here today, Panday said the assessment of actual load would help to identify the short falls in existing system and strengthen it as per the requirements.
He said strengthening of the power infrastructure would help to overcome the system constraints which is main cause behind the Transmission and Distribution(T&D) losses and frequent breakdowns, including burning of distribution transformers.
Highlighting the salient features of Voluntary Load Disclosures Scheme (VLDS) , he said it provides consumers an opportunity to declare their actual loads without attracting penalty and service connection charges. He appealed the people to come forward and avail the scheme for it was a major reform to improve the power scenario in the state.
Chairman SERC S M Desalphine, Chief Engineer M&RE Shahnaz Goni, Development Commissioner Power, M A Salroo, SE PDD Ashwani Kumar, Members SERC D S Pawar, J S Sudan besides prominent citizens including industrialists in large numbers were present on the occasion.
Mr Panday asked the representatives of SERC and field functionaries of PDD to put their sincere efforts in educating the people about the VLDS, adding that VLDS is meant for assisting the utility to upgrade the power distribution system on the basis of the actual installed load to ensure reliability of the system and supply of quality power supply to the consumers.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
