Union govt has not refused to return power projects, says Dy CM
Jammu: The government on Thursday revealed that the union government has not refused to give back the power projects demanded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government.
The return of power projects is also a part of the ‘agenda of alliance’, the government reiterated.
Replying to a question asked by MLA Khansahab, Hakim Mohammad Yaseen, Deputy Chief Minister and in-charge power department, Nirmal Kumar Singh told the lower house that in a recent review meeting on the power sector in J&K, the union power ministry hasn’t anywhere in the minutes of the meeting refused to give back the power projects demanded by the state.
Singh also said that the state government has formally asked the government of India in 2015 to return back the Uri and Dul Hasti power projects from National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) to the state.
“On March 16, 2015, the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister met the Union Power Minister formally and impressed upon the need of transfer of Uri and Dul Hasti power projects to the state from NHPC,” Singh said.
He said in the state government’s 2015 power budget funds have been set aside for operation and maintenance cost of these power projects when they are transferred from the NHPC.
“The transfer of power projects is an important part of the developmental agenda of the PDP-BJP coalition government,” Singh said.
He also said that the reason for worsening power scenario in the summer capital Srinagar and Valley, in general, was that Contract Demand of the consumers should not exceed 1551 megawatt (MW) but at present, the demand was 3101 MW.
He said that owing to this huge unregistered load in the system which the consumers use over and above the registered connected load, the power supply situation in the Valley has been hit.
He also said that there has been an increase of 3.3 percent in the energy consumption in the Valley from 6466 mega units in 2016-17 to 6679 (MU) in 2017-18.
In Jammu division, the energy consumption has also increased by 1.5 percent from 5239.53 MU in 2016-17 to 5319.68 in 2017-18.