5 lakh electricity consumers unaccounted for in J&K

PDD claims fall flat

5 lakh electricity consumers unaccounted for in J&K

Yash Khajuria

JAMMU, Aug 28:  About 5 lakh domestic consumers have been using unaccounted electricity that too without paying any single penny to the Power Development Department (PDD) putting question mark on the claims of department on reforms.

There are 20,15,088 households across the State 10,21,244 in Jammu region and 9,93,844 in Kashmir valley as per the census of 2011 and 17,53,201 (87 per cent) of these households have the facility of electricity.

In Jammu region, the highest unregistered domestic consumers are in Jammu district where their number is 66,781 followed by Rajouri where their number is 62,470. Poonch district is at number three place with 46,186 unregistered consumers. Similarly, there are 38,040 such consumers in Kathua, 36,572 in Doda, 29,590 in Ramban, 24,923 in Kishtwar, 29,885 in Udhampur, 32,092 in Reasi and 23,195 in Samba districts.

Out of 17,53,201 households having facility of electricity, 11,30,541 are registered consumers of the Power Development Department while as 6,24,461 are unregistered consumers which means they are using electricity without paying even single penny to the Department, sources said, adding "it is not known as to how much electricity these 6,24,461 unregistered households have been consuming and subsequently causing huge loss to the State exchequer".

Out of 6,24,461 unregistered consumers across the State, 3,39,735 are in Jammu region and 2,34,726 in the Kashmir valley and their percentage in Jammu region is 43.92 while as 29.86 in Kashmir valley, sources informed.

"All these unregistered consumers have been consuming electricity at their own will and whim that too right under the nose of the concerned officers of the Power Development Department", sources said, adding "it is a matter of serious concern that neither Chief Engineers and Superintending Engineers nor Executive Engineers and subordinate Engineering Staff of the Department bothered to bring such a large number of unregistered consumers under the ambit of registration".

“Undoubtedly, there are numbers of unregistered connections in the state but the actual figure could not be as large of something 6.24 lakhs we have kept our focused to reduce the alarming number of unregistered connections as our special Squads are regularizing the unregistered connections wherever they find” Said Gurbachan Singh,  Superintending Engineers PDD.