Opposition stages a walkout after government assurances on power supply restoration fail to appease the opposition members.While accusing the government of failing the people Senior NC leader and MLA Khanyar Ali Mohammad Sagar said, "The government should tell this house why it has failed to provide 24 hours electricity as they used to claim whem Late Mufti was alive. They aren’t even respecting and following their own scheduled power cuts".Non-availibity of electricity in the valley post snowfall dominates the start of question hour session as ruling party MLA's join hands with the opposition to corner the govt.PDP MLA Kokernag Rahim Rather asked his government that why has valley been groped into darkness as his area is without any electricity.He was seconded by MLA Shopian who also complained of non-availibilty of electricity in his constituency.From past five days my constituency has not seen electricity and 30 transformers lie damaged, said Banihal MLA Vikar Rasool Wani, former minister of power.Legislators also raised the issue of prolonged time being taken in the repairs of the transformers. In my constituency to repair a transformer it takes one month, said MLA Devsar, Mohammad Amin Bhat.
Majority of the legislators from Valley showed their concern and castigated government. To express their concern and resentment, opposition members staged a walk out from the House.Parliamentary affairs minister, Abdul Rahmaan Veeri , while responding said that, administration is ensuring that people don’t sufferer and I have directed officials to make sure that people don’t suffer.Minister of State for Power, Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi informed the house that Rs 66.61 crore have been spent on repair of 24334 transformers damaged/burnt during the last two years across the State. These include 13409 in Kashmir, 10685 in Jammu and 240 in Ladakh region.Replying to a question by Ali Mohammad Sagar, the Minister said that major cause of damage of these transformers is excessive load by consumers. The department has been making efforts to check excess/unauthorized use of load and power theft by the consumers as the enforcement squads are conducting frequent inspections, the Minister added.Giving details of the transformers installed during the last two years, the Minister said that 2055 transformers were installed across the State including 849 in Kashmir, 1171 in Jammu and 35 in Ladakh.Regarding the shortage of power supply in the State, and measures initiated to improve it, the Minister said that the Government is making concerted efforts to improve the overall power scenario in the State for which several long term measures have been taken.
Listing the reasons for frequent power cuts, especially during the winters in Kashmir and summers in Jammu, the Minister said that there is a large gap between the total unrestricted load demand of the consumers and the actual agreement load which is being managed by the department. The indiscriminate use of gadgets, especially during the peak hours in violation of agreed load leads to the breakdown of system with the result the department is constrained to impose cuts. The improvement in power supply is based on the load management, accountability and compliance from the consumers, said the Minister. Responding to another query, the Minister informed that 42 cases of theft of 25 KVA transformers were reported in Anantnag district during 2011, for which the FIRs stand lodged with the concerned Police Stations.Mian Altaf, Abdul Majid Larmi and Devinder Singh Rana raised the supplementary questions relating to power scenario in their respective constituencies and called upon the Government to take immediate measures to strengthen the power infrastructure to improve the supply position. (CNS)