SrinagarAhead of chilly winter months, Kashmir will be facing twenty one- hour power cut in metered areas in a week and forty two- hour cut in non- metered areas, as per the curtailment schedule of Power Development Department.
Chief Engineer Power Development Department (PDD), Kashmir, Shahnaz Goni on Saturday said the new power curtailment has been put in place.
Interestingly the slash of power supply in both metered and non-metered areas comes after the civil secretariat; highest seat of power has shifted to Jammu for next six months.
The Chief engineer Shahnaz Goni, said that power demand has increased and admitted that there is power curtailment. We can effort 1200 MWs of power these days however the demand is 1600 MWs. So we have started the power curtailment from last few days and according to the schedule the metered areas are subjected to 21 hours of weekly cut and non- metered 42 hours.
She said that metered areas have one hour each morning, day and evening cut daily. The non-metered areas have two hour power cut thrice in the day.
The chief engineer said that if the consumers make judicious use of electricity, there is no need for long power curtailment in the coming months. We have seen that power thefts and use of heaters and boilers by the consumers cause the overloading. People should use electricity judiciously, the chief engineer appealed.
She stated that the department cannot have the inspection squad in every corner of the Valley and that people must understand the judicious use of power.
The chief engineer believed that this years curtailment schedule will have lot of respite for the Valley consumers. Various reformatory measures have been taken by the power department in this regard, she maintained.
However people believe that the curtailment in metered areas is against the norms where the department is bound to provide round-the-clock power supply. The Department has been violating its own schedule by resorting to unscheduled powers cuts in metered areas, said one of the residents of Bemina Srinagar.
He said that the extended power cuts surface soon after the Durbar (seat of governance) shifts to Jammu as a bi-annual practice.
Many complaints have pertinently poured in from all most all the districts of the valley including Srinagar city about the power curtailment.
Meanwhile sources in the PDD said that people have started resorting to theft and hooking. Even in posh colonies people start to resort to hooking creating problem in smooth supply of electricity, said one of the officials of the PDD.
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