Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Sunday expressed anguish over the ongoing anti-working class policies of Central Government which are causing innumerable hardships on the lives of common people in general and the working class in particular. As a part of his mass contact programme in different areas of Gandhi Nagar constituency to listen to people’s problems and making efforts to address the same,he  interacted with prominent persons of Bahufort area of Gandhi Nagar constituency. On this occasion people in the area submitted memorandum of demands to him for redressal of their grievances. Prominent among those present on the occasion include Deewan Chand,  Sahil Shavotra (DYC Vice President), Pawan Kumar Market President ,Kuldeep Kumar ,Mangat Ram, Rufi Pajgotra, Shambu Nath, Bittu Shavotra ,Bittu beside others.Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that alarming unemployment, price rise of essential commodities, large scale disinvestment of public sector units, attack on social security system like pension, amendment in labour laws in favour of corporate, outsourcing, casualisation in government/semi government departments in a massive way with the abolition of permanent post has caused large scale resentment among the employees arid workers in almost all sectors. Bhalla added huge burden put on the working people by way of GST and withdrawal/reducing the subsidy on essential items of live hood are causing immeasurable suffering on the people.

Bhalla said that people in various areas of Jammu are receiving exuberant electricity bills and are running from pillar to post for getting it rectified but to no avail. Moreover, adding to their woes, the electricity department has also cut the connection as they failed to pay the bill. But the people are not at fault as PDD failed to collect monthly rent and now serving them yearly bills asking them to pay in one go which is difficult for them to pay such huge bills who are already facing huge hardships in managing family affairs due to soaring inflation and high rate of unemployment in J&K. He demanded LG Murmu to come out with amnesty scheme immediately as has been done by previous govts in J&K from time to time. Cutting power connections will not serve the purpose of PDD and infect only creating panic among poor people of the area.People shocked to see the amount, approached the electricity department where they were allegedly told to pay the bill in order to resume the connection.No one listens to their pleas, how will they submit that amount? When they went to complain about it, they were told that they won't resume their electricity connection unless they pay the bill," said Bhalla.

 The PDD needs to put its house in order vis-à-vis T&D losses, improvement in revenue collection efficiency, delays in execution of projects leading to avoidable losses and lowering of establishment costs before submitting any petition for a hike in power tariff, said Bhalla. A critical audit of the expenditures and functioning of the PDD is called for to bring to light the actual reasons for the huge liabilities created,” he added. After miserably failing to implement the most vital Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP), PDD has come up with a new mantra to plunder peoples' money once again.Launched in the year 2011, Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) had a focus to reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses in power distribution and management across state utilities. A Private firm was selected to establish reliable and automated systems for sustained collection of accurate baseline data for Jammu and Kashmir Power Development, as well as enhance adoption of information technology in the areas of energy accounting.As the transmission and distribution losses mount in the Jammu and Kashmir with the consumers bearing the brunt of load shedding, the scheme was launched amid much fanfare with the aim to reduce the T&D losses.

Former Minister further said that BJP Govt has failed to introduce any initiatives for upgrading the power sector which could have a long-time impact on power generation and distribution so that the consumers get 24x7 power supply and 100 per cent electrification.  Nothing has been done in the housing and urban development sector which could be instrumental in ensuring that the people of the state get quality facilities of modern urban living, failed to ensure J&K comes up as one of the model UT in the country," he said. There is no clarity and set procedure in public domain to reduce AT&C losses, strengthen the sub-transmission distribution network and electrification of un-electrified household schemes like RAPDRP, IPDS, DDUGJY & RGGVY Phase-II and Prime Minister's Development Package (PMDP).

J&K is having vast hydro power potential from where electricity is being supplied to several parts of India. This is the reality that electricity generated in J&K is illuminating thousands of homes in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan but new union territory is suffering from want of power, Bhalla added. Under the previous UPA Government, various committees like Working Group on economic development of J&K, Rangarajan Committee and Task Force on development of the State had recommended transfer of the two power projects. Similarly, when the PDP-BJP formed the government in 2015, it was in their ‘Agenda of Alliance’ that one power project would be returned to J&K. But nothing was done in this regard. J&K has to purchase electricity worth hundreds of crores annually from the Centre-owned NHPC and other power corporations.“The J&K gets a share of just 13 per cent from the electricity that NHPC generates in new union territory,” he said.

The power development department (PDD) has been reduced to a laughing stock as all its claims to provide ‘curtailment-free’ electricity in metered and urban areas of Jammu district have fallen flat. The people of Jammu region may face more worst kind of crisis in coming hottest summer days of June and July as the private firms repairing damaged electric transformers for the PDD have also decided not to work till their long pending liability is cleared. The people are the ultimate sufferers for their no fault on this count. They are paying fatty electricity bills regularly while the PDD failed to supply adequate power to them. He further said that transformers repaired in PDD workshops, mostly get damaged even within week, a fortnight or even a month. In some cases, they get damaged immediately after installation. Department takes one year warranty from the private firms for the repaired transformers, ensuring quality work but this rule is not for them in their own PDD workshops. They should also be made accountable to ensure quality work and not the substandard one, he added.

Despite failing to fulfill demands of consumers, Power Development Department {PDD} has resorted to firing of paper canons with every passing day to convince them. Government is coming out every next day with proposals of development in power sector or advisory for power shut down on the pretext of repairing lines etc to avoid confrontation with consumers who pay monthly fees as per the wishes of authorities in the department. In a bizarre like situation wherein children, school going, elders, young, men and women are asking for accountability of the department with heavy heads and hearts, coming up with brand new developmental proposals and exercising hallow assurance seems to be intriguing, but how much it affects upon the masses remains worth to watch in the days to come.