Industry sceptical, says it’s just an eyewash

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, August 16

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has announced that new power connections to industrial units with connected load of up to 150 kVA and located in designated industrial areas in the state would be released within seven days if no right of way (ROW) is involved.

Far from being happy over the announcement, the industry is rather sceptical saying it was just an eye wash.

Elaborating further in a commercial circular, the Chief Engineer/ Commercial of the PSPCL said: “As per the Business Reform Action Plan-2017 for states and union territories regarding the release of industrial connections up to 150 kVA in designated industrial areas of the state, it has been decided that new connections will be released within seven days in normal situation, where no augmentation, erection and extension of distribution main, erection/augmentation of distribution transformer or power transformer (ROW) is required for effecting such supply, connections up to 150 kVA shall be released within seven days of the compliance of demand notice.

The circular said: “However, where augmentation, erection and extension of distribution main, distribution transformer or power transformer (ROW) is required for effecting such supply, the new power connections will be released within 15 days from the date of compliance of demand notice.”

The circular issued on August 10, 2017, in this respect has been sent to all Chief Engineers and Engineers-in Chief/ Distribution in the state for meticulous compliance.

The industry, however, has taken these instructions with a pinch of salt while maintaining that new connections were not being released within the stipulated timeframe.

The Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations (FOPSIA) President Badish Jindal said the time frame for the release of new connections in designated industrial areas in the state as fixed under the Right to Services Act was seven days, where no augmentation of distribution main of transformer was required. “But the PSPCL staff invariably falters in release of connections within a week of compliance of the demand note on various pretexts,” he said, alleging that even after completing all formalities, the industrial consumers had to pay bribe to get the things moving.

He said about the new connections where the augmentation of distribution main or distribution transformers was required, the less said the better for simple reason that most of the time the field staff claims shortage of material in the stores. “In such cases, either the consumers are forced to pay a hefty bribe or they are told to arrange for the material at their own cost.”