The Chief Minister, Ms Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday formally launched the UJALA scheme in Kashmir with the distribution of LED bulbs among consumers at a function organized at Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), here.Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh, Minister for Agriculture Production, Mr Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Minister for Cooperatives and Ladakh Affairs, Chering Dorjay, Minister for Education, Mr Naeem Akhtar, Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development Social Welfare, Health & Medical Education, Ms Asiea Naqash, Minister of State for Forest, Ecology and Environment, Animal & Sheep Husbandry, Cooperative and Fisheries, Mr Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Member Parliament Fayaz Mir and several Legislators were present on the occasion.
The scheme has been introduced with the aim of benefiting the consumers and save their day to day energy bill. With the formal launch of UJALA scheme in Kashmir, the consumers in the Valley can buy 5 LED bulbs of 9W at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 20 each, as against a market price of Rs 250 to Rs 300 on production of photo-stat copy of photo identity card and latest electricity bill. In case of purchase of more than five bulbs, consumers need to pay Rs 95 per bulb.The state government aims to distribute over 80 lakh bulbs to over 16 lakh households in the state. With the distribution of these LED bulbs the state will have energy savings of 28.27 lakh kWh per day. Consumers can buy LED bulbs under UJALA Scheme from the nearest Khidmat/CSC centres.
The scheme also provides for free replacement for all technical faults for three years. The replacements can be done through any of the distribution counters.UJALA, an acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All, is a scheme for registered domestic electricity consumers to be implemented by Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department in collaboration with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of leading PSUs under the administration of Ministry of Power, Government of India.The UJALA scheme was launched by the Prime Minister in 2015 with a target of replacing 77 crore incandescent bulbs with Energy Efficient LED Bulbs in the country. Around 15.43 crore LED bulbs have already been distributed across 18 states under the scheme. This is leading to a daily energy savings of 5.49 crore kWh and resulting in avoidance of 4013 MW of peak demand. Through the scheme the estimated cumulative cost of reduction of bills of consumers, per day is Rs 21.96 crore.Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the UJALA scheme will go a long way in saving the electricity bills of the consumers “It will cut down electricity bills and bring in more brightness into our life,” she told the people on the occasion.The Chief Minister highlighted the importance of energy conservation through the spread of LED bulbs and noted that it is much more economical to conserve power, than to produce power. “With each unit saved, we generate a unit of electricity”, she said.
The Chief Minister added that as one LED bulb consumes one tenth of the energy consumed by a normal yellow bulb, we shall be saving enormous amount of energy if we are able to replace inefficient bulbs in our state with LED bulbs.The Chief Minister said that these LED bulbs shall be exempted from VAT and urged the consumers to come forward and purchase these inexpensive LED bulbs at Rs 20 per bulb, so that their monthly electricity bills are reduced and they contribute positively towards energy conservation.Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister said launch of Uajala scheme is a historic step towards power saving and augmentation. He said in the last 15 months, the Government has taken various initiatives to provide a transparent and corruption free governance. He added that it is just the beginning, we are working towards providing uninterrupted power supply to the consumers by 2019. He also enumerated various initiatives taken under programmes like RPDRP.The Deputy Chief Minister said that we are determined to make life of the people easy and in this regard various measures have been taken to increase the power generation, bring down AT&C losses and these measures are already showing results.Commissioner Secretary PDD, Mr Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr Navin Kumar Choudhary, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Mr Baseer Khan, Secretary Labour & Employment, Ms Nirmal Sharma, Director Information, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone, Director School Education, Kashmir, Dr Shah Faesal, Development Commissioner Power, Sheikh Ayaz Gul, Managing Director EESL, Mr Saurabh Kumar, Chief Engineers and other officers of PDD and divisional and district administration were present on the occasion.