Residents in Kashmir are facing sporadic power outages as there are unscheduled power cuts by the Power Development Department (PDD) as winter is yet to set in.
Residents of old city in Srinagar are up in arms against unscheduled power cuts. The aggrieved residents have alleged that Power Development Department (PDD) doesn’t ensure regular power supply to them.
Amid the cold conditions, the government has pushed us to reel under darkness, residents said.
“We do not receive proper power supply as per schedule and frequent power cuts have become a daily Routine now,” said a resident of Lal Chowk.
“Our exams are going on and due to shortage of Power Supply we have to face a lot of hardships. We have been repeatedly asking authorities to redress our problems; but to no avail,” the students from the Habba kadal said.
Despite many higher class exams are undergoing nowadays, the fact is this that we have to wind-up books before the dusk starting falls, the good time for studying is after 6 pm but when there is no electricity we better sleep over reading for exams” said Sajad Ahmad, a class 12th student.
Administration has directed concerned officers to ensure all facilities to people, but PDD department is turning a deaf ear Residents said.
Residents urged P.D.D. authorities to strengthen the power supply infrastructure so that genuine grievances of the consumers will be redressed.
Every year, according to PDD, the Valley faces an electricity deficiency of around 800 MWs because only 1300 MWs of electricity is available against a demand of around 2100-2200 MWs, resulting in a deficiency of around 800 MWs.
Meanwhile, Chief Engineer, KPDCL, Aijaz Ahmad Dar said that as per the schedule devised, the non-metered areas will see a power curtailment of 4 to 5 hours in a day initially, and for metered areas it will be for 2 to 3 hours,” he said.
“We are trying our best to minimize power curtailment hours, but people must cooperate with the department,” Dar said, while claiming that “illegal use of power, hooking, theft, etc. continue”.
“In winter, there is an additional 100 MWs of demand, which adds to the deficit. Curtailment is extremely difficult for an electrical engineer to plan. When demand increases, supply suffers because only 1300 MWs are available,” Dar added.
The residents of the affected areas appealed to higher authorities to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to the consumers ahead of winters.
