J-K chief secretary stresses on raising awareness about judicious use of electrical appliances

Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 26 : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, in a high-level meeting, called on officers of the Power Development Department to run a large-scale campaign to make people aware about the judicious use of electric appliances.
Dr Mehta enjoined them to make the masses fully acquainted with the consumption of electricity by different electric appliances like ACs, Water Heaters, Room Heaters and others so that they become aware of costs and use these gadgets judiciously. He asked them to use the power of our youth in changing the attitude of people by making them champions of change in society.
"The Chief Secretary stated that losses suffered on power purchases exceed more than Rs 3500 Crore annually with previous liabilities piling up by 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 the union territory," the JK government said in a press note.
Mehta 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.
He further added that the overall AT&C losses should be brought down to less than 20 per cent in the UT.
He emphasised on 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.
The Chief Secretary also emphasized making the flat rates less attractive so that people prefer switching to metering of their power connections.
He observed that most people are ready to pay for their consumption. The new mantra should be 100 per cent payment and 100 per cent electricity. He made out that people who clear their dues regularly deserve to be provided quality power round the clock.
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.
The Principal Secretary, PDD, Rajesh Prasad in his presentation stated that the Department has formulated a plan to reduce AT&C losses to 41 per cent from the current 49 per cent during the coming financial year which would further be decreased to 20 per cent till the financial year 2025-26. He also stated that the gap between the Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and Average Revenue Realised (ARR) for the year 2022-23 is Rs 1.79 which is going to be further minimized to Rs 1.60 in the next fiscal and to Rs 0.58 by 2025-26.
He further apprised the meeting that the Department has conducted 166134 inspections in the UT thereby imposing a penalty of Rs 15.03 Cr and making 133534 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 Cr sanctioned by GoI under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) to install the Smart meters to the tune of Rs 1046.71 Cr and carry out other loss reduction works to the tune of Rs 4595.20 Cr. The completion of these projects is 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.
Others who participated in the meeting physically or virtually included the MDs of KPDCL and JPDCL besides the Chief Engineers and other concerned officers of the Department.