Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh informed the House that a proposal regarding extension of Amnesty Scheme 2015 for Domestic Consumers up to March 31, 2018 has been moved by the Department with a plan to grant the amnesty to agriculture category also.Replying to a question of Ch. Sukhnandan, the Minister said that Government of India has launched the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) Scheme for meeting the targets set under RGGVY for 12th and 13th plans. He said under DDUGJY scheme an amount of Rs. 616.59 crore has been approved for 10 districts of Jammu Province, 9 districts of Kashmir Province and two districts of Ladakh region for separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders, facilitating judicious roistering of power supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in the rural areas, strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission and distribution (ST&D) infrastructure at feeders and consumer end, electrification of households in rural areas, rural electrification for completion of leftover RGGVY plans by subsuming in DDUGJY. He said DPRS under DDUGJY have been prepared for 21 districts of the State for which Government of India approved an amount of Rs 616.59 crore. He said M/s REC PDCL has been engaged as PMA for DDUGJY projects of Kashmir province covering 11 districts and M/s WAPCOS has been engaged as PMA for Jammu province covering 10 districts.
Deputy Chief Minister further told the House that amongst the 21 districts to be covered under DDUGJY, eight districts of Kulgam, Shopian, Pulwama, Leh, Kargil, Udhampur, Ramban and Reasi have been entrusted to PGCIL for execution and e-NIT has been floated. He said works for these eight districts will be allotted once agreement is signed between PGCIL and JKPDD.Dr. Nirmal Singh further said that the tendering process for six districts of Budgam, Baramulla, Ganderbal, Anantnag, Bandipora and Kupwara being implemented through Project Wing Kashmir was cancelled subsequent to which the works are under litigation and the department is unable to re-tender these works. He said that tenders for Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Kishtwar and Rajouri were also cancelled as per instructions conveyed by Administrative Department while in respect of Doda and Poonch tenders too were cancelled as per the minutes of meeting of Contract Committee-I circulated vide Chief Engineer, Project Wing. Fresh e-NIT for Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch stands uploaded whereas e-NIT for Doda and Kishtwar is under preparation with M/s WAPCOS PMA for DDUGJY.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that as per census 2011 the total number of un-electrified villages in Jammu and Kashmir are 102 out of which 26 fall in Kashmir region, 59 in Jammu and 18 in Ladakh regions which have been covered for electrification under DDUGJY/RGGVY-II scheme. He further said that out of total 102 un-electrified villages 78 are covered under DDUGJY including 26 in Kashmir region, 34 in Jammu and 18 in Ladakh regions.He said that in view of the delay in the award of the contracts for the DDUGJY scheme, and to meet the timelines given by the Government of India for electrification of un-electrified villages, 60 un-electrified villages were taken for electrification departmentally and 18 others were taken up by PGCIL. He further said that in view of the difficult terrain and lack of road connectivity in many of these 102 un-electrified villages coupled with limited working season and longer high voltage lines, maintainability shall always be an issue and thus reliability on on-grid mode shall remain always a challenge.
“To meet the Government of India’s timeline for village electrification the department has decided to take-up the electrification of 54 un-electrified villages through off-grid connectivity as per the decision of State Level Standing Committee. The matter has been taken up with Union Ministry of Power to electrify these villages through solar off-grid mode and the on-grid electrification works of these villages will be carried on simultaneously” he informed.Replying to clubbed question of Mr. Abdul Majeed Bhat, Deputy chief Minister elaborated that construction of 33/11 KV, 1x6.3 MVA, Receiving Station, Shamsipora in Home Shalibugh constituency is an ongoing scheme at an estimated cost of Rs.2.29 crore under T&D sector against which an amount of Rs.0.95 crore has been expended during current fiscal year.He said that the Receiving Station is expected to be completed by the end of March 2018 subject to the availability of balance funds and permission for laying of 11 KV line alongwith the railway track for which the matter has been taken up with District Administration/Railway authorities.