Jammu faces 53 percent power shortfall, Kmr gets lion share despite paying less
Although the government assured no favoritism to one region over other in the Union Territory but when it comes to the distribution of power the Kashmir region gets lion share while people of Jammu left to deal with inadequate power supply resulting in frequent blackouts.
“Likewise every year, the Jammu region is dealing with unscheduled power despite contributing more in revenue generation as compared to Kashmir region,” an official privy with development told, wishing not to be named.
Citing official figures of the year 2020-21, he said the Jammu region consumed 7559 million units(MUs) for Rs.1450 crore in revenue was realized, while for the same period the Kashmir region consumed 10, 162 MUs about 30% more the Jammu and only Rs.1182 Crore in revenue was realized for it, Rs.275 crores less from Jammu region. The T&C(Aggregate Technical and Commercial) losses of Kashmir are around 65%.
Against the daily requirement of 1100 to 1200 MW, the Jammu region is only receiving around 600 to 700 MW of power with shortfall of around 50% of 700 to 800 MW, while at the same time the Kashmir region where there is much clamor of power outages is receiving around 1000 MW of power.
Against the peak power demand of 3000-3200 MW, Jammu and Kashmir is receiving 1100 to1200 MW of power with around 40% shortfall.
Meanwhile, chief Secretary, Arun Kumar Mehta while reviewing power and water scenario in Jammu and Kashmir was informed that to mitigate shortfall in Jammu and Kashmir the Centre has allocated additional power to Jammu and Kashmir to meet the demand.
“Jammu is getting less power, clearly suggesting that there was incentive to power theft and punishment to compliance”, said Vishal, a resident of Top Sherkhanian.
Since the onset of summers from mid March, Jammu is reeling under the worst ever power crisis in over a decade, as the region is facing unscheduled power cuts ranging from 8 to 12 hours, varying among localities. The situation is much worse in the far flung area of Jammu which is enduring power cuts in excess of 12 hours. The situation is not different for the industrial sector of Jammu including, Gangyal, Bari-Brahmana, Samba and even Kathua-which too is facing frequent power outages. Bari Brahmana Industrial Association Lalit Mahajan said the power crisis has caused huge losses to the unit holders. In view of the unscheduled power cuts, the industrialists are planning to go for single shift work which will lead to retrenchment of the staff at a time when unemployment is on rise.
The frequent blackouts ranging from half an hour to three hours in one go and many such in the 24 hour cycle have thrown life out of gear in Jammu region. Public is fearing the worst in the coming months when the humidity kicks in. The power woes have been also due to hooter-than usual weather and locals are staring difficult summers as season in Jammu starches upto mid September. Despite the high temperatures, Jammu region is getting far less power when compared to Kashmir region which is having pleasant weather with far less energy requirements.
The daily total power requirement of J&K is around 3000 to 3200 MW and available power is around 1800 to 1900 MW, with a daily shortfall of 1000 to 1100 MW. J&K imports 1235 MW of power with scheduled withdrawal of 1121 MW, while it overdraws around 114 MW power daily.
From hydroelectric power projects including NHPC, J&K gets 300 MW power daily for Baghliar 1 and 250 MW from Baghliar 2.
The main reason for the present power crisis is the immediate spike in short term electricity rates. The prices at power exchanges shot up to Rs.20 per unit; however the regulator had fixed the cap at Rs.12 per unit. But earlier J&K was getting power at almost half the price around Rs.5 to 6 per unit. Now the states that can afford are buying at Rs.12 per unit and J&K with constrained financial resources is failing to purchase power, resulting in demand supply mismatch. Also the blackouts are sparked by the scarcity of coal — the fossil fuel that accounts for 70 per cent of India’s electricity generation.
Meanwhile, JCCI president Arun Gupta has suggested the administration go for purchase of power like the governments in the past to overcome the crisis.
