Srinagar: Taking a strong note of power outage during sweltering heat wave in the winter capital, the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday ordered the constitution of a panel to probe the erratic power cuts, fix the responsibility and punish the officials involved.
Chairing a high-level meeting at the Civil Secretariat here on Wednesday, LG assured the people of Jammu division that a committee will be constituted by the Chief Secretary to enquire into the recent unscheduled power outage in various areas, an official spokesperson said.
The LG said much before the onset of summer, several meetings were held under preparation to prevent erratic electricity supply in Jammu division for May-June when mercury soars high.
“Unscheduled power cuts that Jammu faced were not normal. That’s why, I have asked the Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta to constitute a committee to enquire into the matter and those found responsible should be given the highest punishment as permissible under the law. I want to assure the people that your sweat will not go in vain and officers responsible for your suffering will be punished soon,” Sinha said, as per official spokesperson.
The LG said despite losses to the tune of Rs. 3,500 Crores incurred every year on electricity, the Union Territory is working round-the-clock to strengthen transmission, distribution network, and power generation capacity in the UT.
“The results were visible on the ground during winter when people in the Kashmir valley for the first time had uninterrupted power supply even during the snow,” Sinha said, as per official spokesperson.
“J&K has been bestowed with enormous hydro resources, however, out of total identified power potential of 14,867 MW, only 3504.90 MW could be harnessed since the past 70 years. In the last 11-months, we have finalized the project that will generate 3500 MW within next 4 years. Transmission network upgradation works have been taken up, not just to evacuate power from the upcoming power projects, but also to provide robustness to the existing system spread across the UT as also to plan for the future power requirements with the ultimate goal of 24X7 Power for All,” he added.
As per the official spokesperson, the LG said adequate key logistics in terms of transformers, poles and conductors have been stocked in remote areas in addition to divisional stores so as to ensure swift restoration in case of damage to electrical infrastructure due to weather vagaries.
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