Power supply to Jammu areas curtailed amid blistering heat

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 2

If the blistering heat wave was not enough, the power development department (PDD) is playing a cruel joke on Jammu by curtailing electricity supply to the region.

The temperature has reached the 45°Cbut for the past one week, PDD is supplying 950 MW of power to Jammu on an average while in Kashmir, having relevantly cooler weather, nearly 1,100 MW is being supplied. This has raised questions on the policy adopted by the government for the climatically diverse divisions.

While bureaucracy is enjoying the cool climes of the Valley, unbridled power cuts and night outages are making people across the region suffer.

The disparity in power distribution is being overlooked by the administration while the BJP, which is ruling at the Centre and has two Members of Parliament from the Jammu region, has maintained silence.

A majority of leaders and former MLAs are either in New Delhi for celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term or in Kashmir valley.

“The BJP is technically in government but still acts like an opposition party. It is unfortunate. Consumers are being asked to curtail load, knowing fully the extreme weather conditions prevailing,” said Mohit Sharma, a resident of Rehari.

Each day has turned into a struggle for the residents as they battle unscheduled power cuts and fluctuations, forcing them to spend sleepless nights for the last one week.

“We have nothing against any region but keeping in view the rising temperature, Jammu should get additional power. Our MPs, who won with huge margins, should have taken up the issue with the Union Power Ministry to mitigate problems of the people”, said Sushil Kumar from Talab Tillo.

Meanwhile, senior officials of the PDD remained tightlipped about the inequality between the two regions when it comes to distribution of power. Conditions will improve in the next few days, they said.

“We are making every effort to streamline electricity supply to Jammu. Consumers need to cooperate with the PDD,” said Sudhir Gupta, Chief Engineer of the PDD.