Although in the case of essential services like water and electricity there is an obvious contract between the government and the consumers that the former will provide the facility and the latter entity will have to clear the dues stipulated for the aforesaid service or facility.
In the case of electricity distribution, the governments in J&K have time and again promised that after installation of smart meters and clearing off the pending bills, it will provide round-the-clock power to the aforesaid consumers but on ground especially after the Omar Abdullah government has taken up the reins, the unscheduled power cuts have become a norm.
These outages, often without warning, affect both urban and rural areas. Another surprising fact is that despite the change in infrastructure at almost all the places in J&K with insulated cables replacing the naked metal wires, the situation with regard to power going into hibernation every time there is a gale or a rain shower comprising a few drops of water has turned distrustful.
The governments used to give alibi that due to poor infrastructure the power outage was inevitable but today the scenario has been changed as crores of rupees have been spent on upgrading the power infrastructure for better services and ending the power theft but looking at the situation one can guess well that both the aforesaid objectives have not been met as power theft and power cuts are very much in vogue in J&K and the situation is akin to the one prevailing decades ago.
It is time for the incumbents to provide information about why the unannounced power cuts are still there when the majority of people are paying the bills on time and the infrastructure has been upgraded to an optimum level.
It is necessary to understand that despite archaic infrastructure in many western countries and even in Australia, hardly people witness things like unannounced power cuts. It is a fact that there are countries where people have never seen an unscheduled power cut in their entire life.
It is time to ponder what is wrong in J&K that many places here witness the dark hours with power cuts remaining in fashion despite promises and assurances of the helmsmen?
