Despite public outcry against the erratic electric supply in the Jammu division amidst the sweltering hot weather here, the power development department (PDD) on Friday announced a 20-days massive power curtailment programme for the urban and rural areas of Jammu. Electric supply will remain shut for 2 to 6 hours daily in various areas from 11 to 30 June.
The announcement read; “Due to extreme hot weather conditions and resultant overloading of electrical infrastructure at Grid Station level, 33 KV lines and 33/11 KV Receiving Stations, the Power Development Department shall enforce load shedding in different areas w.e.f June 11 to June 30, 2021”.
The Jammu Division is witnessing massive power failures for the past three days and the people were cursing on social media the Lieutenant Governor’s administration for this “chaos”. “Instead of improving power supply, the authorities have imposed the massive curtailment on the consumers”, cried a housewife.
The turmoil in the electric sector was continuing although the central government recently invested several hundred crores of rupees for upgrading the power infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir. Electric consumers blame the PDD staff for the continuing mess, whereas a senior engineer in an interview accused power theft as the cause behind the crisis.
The social media was flooded with posts cursing the administration for the crisis and interestingly even BJP activists and supporters were not lagging behind in criticizing the authorities on the issue of power crisis. They point out that the power supply was not disrupted for even a minute when Jagmohan was the Governor of J&K and the state was under central rule. Former Governor NN Vohra also handled the power scenario effectively during his long tenure.
This is perhaps for the first time that such a massive electric cut has been ordered in the Jammu region during the peak summer. LG’s advisor Baseer Khan on Thursday held a meeting with PDD engineers and ordered them to resolve the power crisis early.