While the Modi government says that all villages in the country have been electrified, but the number of un-electrified households in Jammu and Kashmir has increased by more than 32,000 during the past two years.

The number of un-electrified households in the state has increased from 3.56 lakh in 2016 to 3.88 lakh, according to official figures. With that high figure, the government was unlikely to meet the target of electrifying all households by the end of December this year as only months are left. The Centre has allocated Rs. 1,100 crore for this purpose.

The authorities have been going slow on the centrally funded scheme of providing electricity to each household in the state as a result of which the number of houses without electricity was increasing.

The number of un-electrified households that was 3.56 lakh in 2016 when the J-K Government signed a pact with the Centre for augmenting the power sector and providing 24×7 electricity supply by 2019 has now increased to 3.88 lakh. The information regarding the increased number of un-electrified households was given by the secretary PDD, Hirdesh Kumar, in a meeting to the Governor.

Taking a serious view of the lapse, Governor NN Vohra held a high-level meeting to review the ground situation wherein he ordered the departments concerned to expedite the job and also reduce the huge losses in the power sector.

It is worth mentioning that in absence of a proper electricity board in Jammu and Kashmir, the power development department (PDD) has come to be known as one of the most corrupt organisations with a transmission loss of over 45 percent, perhaps highest in the country.

There were allegations that officials of the PDD were creating hurdles in smooth implementation of the centrally funded scheme by the IRCON to replace the traditional steel electricity wires with rubber coated ones and install prepaid meters to curb power theft.

At the time of signing the joint statement in 2016, it was stated that 8,92,632 domestic power connections in the state were metered while 6,45,385 were unmetered.

Official figures indicate that power theft in Kashmir valley was higher than in the Jammu division. Against lesser supply of 10,778 million units of electricity in the Jammu division between April 2015 to November 2016, the PDD realised a revenue of Rs. 1,703 crore, whereas against the consumption of 13,304 million units in the Kashmir valley, the revenue realisation was Rs. 1,120 crore.