KL Report
SRINAGAR
Expressing concern at the further deterioration of power supply, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Tuesday said the darkness that has engulfed the valley ahead of winter seems to be the parting shock of the ruling coalition before it is voted out around this time next year.
In a statement issued to CNS, the party chief spokesperson Naeem Akhtar said the Omar Abdullah led coalition has left deep scars on the body and soul of the state in its five years of misgovernance, corruption and compromise. But, the worsening of power position remains an outstanding failure of this government to build upon the progress achieved by its preceding coalition, the PDP-congress, he said.
Akhtar said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who holds the power portfolio, one of the few uninterrupted charges in the present dispensation, owes lot of answers for his failure to at least maintain the level of power supply that had been ensured till 2008.
He said more than 600 mega watts of power have been added to the state’s own generation capacity.
“The power tariff has been raised five times during the past five years and the government has been making claims of having charged hundreds of crores of rupees as water usage fee from NHPC and JKSPDC. In spite of this, the actual delivery of power to the consumer has hit the lowest level in the past one decade,” Akhtar said.
Referring to the chronic malfunctioning of government apparatus under all NC dispensations, Akhtar recalled as to how till 2002 the power supply would be virtually switched off with the first hint of winter on one pretext or the other, the most common being ‘breakdown of a transmission tower at the Pir Panjal’. The supply would be reduced to ridiculously low quantity when people were supplied power for one hour in every 24 hours which would keep households awake for entire nights in freezing cold in order to be able to pump water into overhead tanks or iron their cloths for the next morning. Akhtar said the arrival of the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led government had witnessed an immediate reversal of this humiliating treatment of the people of Kashmir but it seems Omar Abdullah government has once again been able to reintroduce that dark era.
The PDP spokesperson said on the one hand the successive NC governments committed loots against the people of the state by selling out water resources to NHPC and on the other hand it has been accusing the consumers of power theft.
He said one of the promises made by Omar Abdullah government in the last election was to provide free electricity when it coined the infamous slogan ‘Meter Todo heater Lagao’ and made fun of the PDP-Congress government for introducing power reforms. However, five years down the line, the Chief Minister has presided over the complete collapse of the supply system, revenue generation and upgradation of distribution network. And in between he doled out another three major projects to the NHPC under the garb of so called joint venture which is heavily loaded against the interests of state, added Akhtar.
