Jattan Singh Gill, Advocate
Amidst a hue and cry over the installation of Smart Meters backed by an official claim that it would improve the power distribution scenario in Jammu Kashmir, the credibility of the JPDCL to fulfil this claim remains questionable keeping in view its track record so far with the scheduled, unscheduled power cuts, infrastructure for quality of power supply.
The stand to collect bills thereunder remains unshaken apparently based upon the quality supply of power. In light of the above position, it has become imperative to assess if the bills/power tariff under smart meters is a bang for the buck. It is also important to analyze if this pricing factor only includes the supply of power or if this supply has to be continuous in terms of quality, and consistency, without interruption and to be rendered by a reliable, maintained infrastructure in place.
It was only yesterday, that in Karan Nagar and Ustad Mohalla areas – next-door neighbours of the Raj Bhawan experienced a catastrophic power outage in the late evening. Taking the power cut to be routine, the long wait for restoration rendered us to the childhood revision exercise of counting from one to twenty-four all from dusk to dawn. Amidst every intermittent pause in counting, there was an unending struggle to reach the JPDCL. Entire available phone numbers of the Utility – from Toll-free to Toll charged; from Lineman to Off-the-line Smart Engineers remained unanswered and kept the thrill and suspense like a Bollywood movie.
In such toll-taking weather of Jammu, the residents of Karan Nagar and some other areas were left without electricity and water for a period of more than 12 hours straight and in some pockets where I reside it took 24 hours to restore the power. Residents surrendered to the severe humidity while some active ones led by the local Municipal Councillor and the JPDCL field staff did their part.
The power did not resume even through the morning of the next day i.e. 29.08.2023 much less the intervening night. This power outage was complimented by dying out of inverters, mobile phones, non-functional water pumps via which water from underground tanks is served in overhead tanks, and non-functional water filters thereby creating a scarcity of drinking water at homes that was no less a nightmare to the residents because of inefficiency and casual approach of the poor functioning of JPDCL.
On the morning of 29.08.2023, calls were made to the AEE concerned about the area but her phone was not reachable thereby implying her lack of knowledge or ignorance of the incident. A few calls were made to some JEEs who claimed that they were transferred.
Aggrieved thus, Chief Engineer JPDCL was contacted over the phone, who showed indulgence in the issue and set things in motion. Further, later in the morning, the power was restored to some part of the locality. The CE JPDCL, out of concern and showing accountability called back to inform that the issue stood resolved, but apparently he had been wrongly briefed as the power still remained out for the later part of the day to the other portion of the locality.
It was at 2 p.m., after hard-pressing the issue, the lineman informed us that the transformer needed to be changed and that it would take time for the rest of us. It showed the lack of civic sense among our residents who did not bother to inform the Lineman about the burning of the Transformer with a bang and any visible or audible malfunction of the said transformer. This was how the issue was spotted after many hours of efforts by the aggrieved residents. The power was finally restored to the tail end of Karan Extension-2 at about 7.30 PM which is almost after 24 hours.
This incident should be an eye-opener for the govt/administration which has been providing deficient service while trying to sell to the consumers the same old stuff in new packaging under the garb of smart meters. While smart meters may be smart for their accurate readings, however, the men and machinery behind the new Smart Meter regime may not be smart enough to ensure the uninterrupted and quality power supply.
The quagmire is that any smart device will lose its smartness if operated by a dumb operator. The higher tariff, therefore, as is being claimed by the govt in terms of supply of power and under the prefix ‘ smart', is questionable, unreasonable and perfunctory. The need of the hour is not just power supply but quality of power supply along with after-sales-services that include emergency maintenance, less turnaround time, efficiency of staff, quick fault detection and availability of equipment and apparatus on the war footing basis.
