Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday ordered officials to crackdown on those indulging in electricity theft in Jammu and Kashmir.
The LG was chairing a high-level meeting to review the power scenario.
He appraised the multi-pronged strategies to meet the high electricity demand in the summer season and directed for integrating reforms for making the power sector robust and resilient.
The Lt Governor directed for effective enforcement through a dedicated enforcement wing for detection of theft of electricity, wrong metering, enquiring into public complaints, unauthorized extensions in load and surprise checking.
The Lt Governor also directed for immediate steps to ensure functioning of all the meters on 11 kV and repair of the damaged meters within one month. Smart meters must be saturated feeder-wise to protect consumer interests and quality standards. It will empower the consumers and help them to conserve energy and usage in an efficient manner, the Lt Governor said.
He also sought a report on steps taken to reduce AT&C losses. He further directed the department to fix the responsibility and draw up an action plan for reducing the losses within a specific timeframe.
The Lt Governor emphasized on training and capacity building of PDD staff; online registration of new consumers; massive awareness drive; proper maintenance of power infrastructure and constitution of teams of officers for monitoring physical condition of equipment.
The Lt Governor passed explicit directions for ensuring power supply to new industrial estates and railway tunnels.
The Lt Governor also reviewed the steps taken towards quality control; completion of languishing projects, revenue realization and network strengthening.
- Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, briefed on the effective measures taken to bridge the demand and supply gap.
It was informed that additional capacities were created during the winter to enable peak demand and 10 per cent more power was supplied as compared to last year.