Srinagar: When they realized they couldn’t deliver electricity by the scheduled time, Kashmiri authorities began tightening their grip on “erring consumers” on Saturday.
According to a statement from the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Ltd. (KPDCL), “KPDCL tightens noose against erring consumers.” 1,117 customers were cut off. In 4 days, revenue of Rs 29.89 crore was realized.
“In order to provide relief to genuine consumers, KPDCL has escalated its night patrolling and inspection drives to tighten noose against erring consumers who indulge in widespread hooking, violation of agreed load and bypassing of the meters.”
In addition, it reported that during the previous four days, it had received payments from customers totaling Rs 29.89 crore. This was during increased efforts to prevent energy theft, which mostly causes outages and damage to transformers, which negatively impacts legitimate customers.
“The Corporation collected a revenue of Rs 9.18 crore on Friday alone in the form of outstanding arrears.
“Of the 1,153 inspections that were completed in the Kashmir Division, 98 took place in Srinagar’s Circle One, 233 in Circle Two, 367 in Circle Ganderbal, 140 in Pulwama, 142 in Bijbehara, and 154 in Circle Sopore. During these drives, a load of about 228 KW was added over the Corporation’s six rings.
“Penalty of Rs 7.81 lakh was also imposed on those who were unauthorisedly using power in terms of Section 126 of the Electricity Act,” it said.
According to the report, 1,117 residential, business, and industrial connections were also cut off for failing to pay energy bills that had been unpaid for longer than three months.
886 home, 212 commercial, and 17 industrial users are included in this. In the meantime, it was reported that 62 Domestic Transformers (DTs) had been damaged on Friday as a result of overloading, an increase from the 52 on Thursday.
“KPDCL also repaired and replaced 61 transformers on Friday, to comply with the directions issued for replacement of the damaged DTs. There was steady procession of damaged DTs at Central Workshop Pampore and the divisional workshops of KPDCL thus putting strain on meeting the timelines fixed by the government.”
The corporation said that it requests its consumers to pay their pending bills or the corporation will be left with no option, but to disconnect their power supply.
