SRINAGAR, June 21: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked people to pay the market price instead of subsidised rates for the electricity they consume or “bear with the load-shedding schedule” announced by his government.
“Power in J-K is the second cheapest in the country after Sikkim. How about all of you, complaining about load-shedding, start paying market price,” Omar wrote on twitter.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the Power portfolio, was apparently responding to criticism of his government on load-shedding in Jammu city, which is reeling under heat wave.
He said the huge losses in transmission and distribution and due to power theft was making the situation unsustainable, forcing the government to go for load shedding.
“I’ve been very transparent about the power situation in the state. The 70 per cent loss/theft situation is unsustainable, so lead shedding happens,” he added.
Abdullah said residents of non-metered areas resist installation of meters as they do not want to pay for power that they use and are happy in understating their electricity load. “Metered areas, where earlier there was no loss, now has massive amounts of theft and bypassing of meters. So metered areas face load shedding,” he added.
The authorities have already begun a process of gathering details about the electricity usage from consumers.
Jammu, the state’s winter capital, has been facing shortage of power for many weeks now. Authorities blame low production for the shortage.
