Srinagar, December 01: Upset over unscheduled power cuts in the valley, residents today staged a dharna blocking vehicular traffic for several hours. The angry people staged protests at over dozen places including Kupwara, Bandipora and Baramulla districts in north Kashmir, Budgam in central and Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama in south Kashmir asking the government to provide uninterrupted power supply to the areas.
“Apart from the scheduled hour curtailment every morning and evening we hardly get any uninterrupted supply. This is despite our area being completely metered,” said Farooq Ahmad, a resident of Channapora locality of Srinagar.
The valley is facing tremendous shortage of power with the fall in generation of electricity due to low discharge from rivers on which all the power houses are functioning during winters. “The water level in all major rivers and their tributaries has dropped to 25 MWs from 105 MWs and in Uri it has dipped to 110 MWs from 450 MWs.
There has also been a drop in the power generation in other small power houses,” Chief engineer Mushtaq Ahmad Shah said. He, however, said that if the theft of power is stopped he can ensure uninterrupted power supply.
“Despite drop in the local generation from about 600 MWs to just 130 MWs, we assure 24 hours power supply to the consumers, if the misuse and theft of power is stopped,” he said. He said the state is spending Rs 1,117 crore for purchase of power but only Rs 127 crore have been recovered from consumers.
The state is suffering a loss worth Rs 1,000 crore on this account.
—-PTI–