Power cuts plague Kashmir amid Ramadan

SRINAGAR — With the commencement of the holy month of Ramadan, Kashmir valley continues to face unscheduled power curtailments and distress cuts—leaving the consumers to reel under darkness, especially at Suhoor and fast-breaking (Iftar) time.

Locals from almost all districts of Kashmir region informed the news agency KNO that the power scenario has worsened over the past four days.

One of the locals of southern Kashmir’s Pulwama area, Razaq Ahmad, said, “Despite being a local of a smart metered area, the power is playing hide and seek with us.”

“At the time of installing smart meters, we were promised an uninterrupted power supply. All I can see is a fake promise by the Power Development Department,” he said.

Ahmad said that the people of his area continue to reel under darkness. “The irony is that we are not even being provided electricity, especially at Suhoor and Iftar time.”

Similarly, the residents of Qazigund area narrated the same ordeal. One of the locals of Qazigund, Rashid Ahmad Khan, said that he has never witnessed such a bad scenario of power in Ramadan.

The 45-year-old Khan said, “This is the worst ever power scenario in my area. I request the Lieutenant Government administration to intervene in this matter and resolve the matter at the earliest.”

In the meantime, we received many such calls from the electricity consumers of Srinagar and northern Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts. Besides, the electricity consumers of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal and Budgam districts expressed antipathy against the authorities for failing to provide uninterrupted electricity.

Inhabitants of several villages of Kangan area in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district also expressed resentment against the PDD for failing to provide adequate electricity to them, especially in the holy month of Ramadan.

The residents of the areas said that they were not getting electricity as per the schedule and were facing tremendous hardships, especially during Sehri and Iftar times.

The locals from Prang, Kangan, Akhal, Anderwan, Haripora, Wussan, Chattergul, Kachnabal, Najwan, Wayil, Nunner and main town Ganderbal said they were receiving electricity for a maximum of two to four hours a day.

The locals of Kashmir Valley appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir administration to resolve the matter at the earliest.

A top official of KPDCL said that it has provided a smooth power supply across the Kashmir Division. “There are some local issues and snags which are taken care of.”

On asking about the unscheduled power cuts and change in power curtailment in the month of Ramadan, the official said, “Consumers have a habit of generalizing things. The majority of the faults in 11 KV feeders is due to system overloads and massive misuse of electricity by exceeding sanctioned load in non-metered areas.”

The official said that the rural belt was almost all flat-rated. It also said that because of DT outages due to excessive overload, some feeders were under fault due to overnight rains and snow in certain areas.

Meanwhile, Principal Secretary Power Development Department H Rajesh Prasad said, “Our power supply position remains the same.”

On asking about any change in the power curtailment schedule in the month of Ramadan, the Principal Secretary said that there was no change in it. “We have not taken any decision in this regard and as of now there is no change in the power curtailment schedule.”

Pertinently, earlier this week, Chief Engineer KPDCL (Distribution) Sandeep Seth said that it was charting out the plan and mechanism to resolve the power curtailment issues for the month of Ramadan.

“We are working on it and most likely, the new curtailment schedule will be implemented from the first day of Ramadan,” he said.