‘Centre working on one nation, one grid and one frequency’
Srinagar, Aug 19: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs Thursday held a meeting with top civil administration to discuss developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in the Union Territory.
At the outset, Chief Secretary of J&K, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta gave a detailed presentation highlighting the achievements and the functioning of all the departments of the UT.
The Committee comprising 28 Members of Parliament from Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha is headed by senior Congress leader and Member of the Parliament, Shri Anand Sharma.
Detailing about the steps taken in the past few years for democratic decentralization, the meeting was informed about the conduct of elections for District Development Councils and Block Development Councils thus strengthening the grassroot level democracy in the UT.
The meeting was told that the region has now three-tier democratic set up in place and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies have been further empowered. Besides, public outreach programmes Back to Village, Jan Abhiyan, My Town My Pride etc were conducted across J&K.
With respect to the power scenario in J&K, the panel was informed that power generation projects have been fast-paced and 2500 MW would be added by the year 2025.
The Committee was informed about the road connectivity, water supply and was briefed about the status of schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission and achievement of 100 per cent piped water supply to all rural schools and Anganwadi Centres in 18 districts of the UT.
While terming the Tourism and Industries as priority sectors, the meeting also deliberated upon the issues of Industrial Development, Tourism sector, employment of youth and women empowerment, sports activities. The meeting also discussed resettlement of Kashmiri Migrants in Kashmir.
Commenting on the covid-19 management in the UT, the panel appreciated COVID-19 mitigation and relief during the pandemic and recognized UT administration’s efforts and also implementation of e-office and other administrative reforms undertaken by the UT administration.
Earlier, the committee held an interactive session with the beneficiaries of Self Help Groups, representatives of Farmer Producer Organizations, high-density apple growers, saffron producers etc.
On the occasion, the horticulturists and agriculturists representatives put forth their suggestions before the panel who assured that their recommendations would be considered suitably.
Among other things, they also raised the issues of marketing of produce, storage capacity and cluster cold storage.
On the occasion, the beneficiaries of youth-centric schemes and programmes also interacted with the committee members and raised the demand of the establishment of skill-specific institutions in far-flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
The panel also visited CRPF camp of 132 battalion housed at Nedous Hotel Maulana Azad Road Srinagar.
The committee members held an interaction with the officers and Jawans of the camp.
Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Atal Dulloo; Principal Secretary Home, Shaleen Kabra; Principal Secretary Housing & Urban Development Department, Dheeraj Gupta; Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce, Ranjan Prakash Thakur; Principal Secretary Youth Services and Sports, Alok Kumar; Commissioner Secretary Labour & Employment, Ms Sarita Chouhan; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole; Commissioner Secretary Jal Shakti Department, M Raju; Secretary Social Welfare Department, Ms Sheetal Nanda; Secretary DMRR&R, Simrandeep Singh; Secretary Planning, Development & Monitoring, Ms Sushma Chouhan; Secretary Tribal Affairs & CEO Mission Youth J&K, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary; Secretary Tourism & Culture, Sarmad Hafeez, Secretary Law & Parliamentary Affairs, Achal Sethi; Mission Director Rural Livelihood Mission, Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar; Director Information & Public Relations, Rahul Pandey and other concerned were also present during the interactive sessions.
PC on subordinate legislation winds visit after meeting power players
The central government is working on the one nation, one grid and one frequency in the country, Joint Secretary, Power, Government of India (GoI) said.
He said that a number of schemes are in vogue to ensure power supply to all the habitations in India.
The Joint Secretary power was speaking at a meeting here on Thursday with Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate legislation headed by its chairman Sardar Pratap Singh Bajwa on the last day of four day visit to Kashmir valley.
The Parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation headed by its Chairman, Sardar Pratap Singh Bajwa Thursday completed its 4-day visit to the Jammu Kashmir UT after meeting the electricity stakeholders of the country here.
Those who were present includes Joint Secretary, Power, GoI; Principal Secretary JKPDD; Secretary Central Electricity Regulatory Commission; representatives of the PSUs namely National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) limited, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) Limited and J&K Power Development Corporation.
The committee members had threadbare discussion on certain rules/regulations governing the power sector of the nation. They also enquired and sought clarifications about certain issues from the officers and management of power sector in both government and PSUs.
Defining the purpose behind the constitution of this committee the Chairman said, “This Committee has been constituted to scrutinize and report to the Raiya Sabha whether the powers to make rules, regulations, bye-laws, etc conferred by the Constitution or delegated by Parliament, are being properly exercised by the executive authorities or not”.
The Committee took up for discussion, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Procedure, Terms and Conditions for grant of trading licence and other related matters) Regulation 2020 with the stakeholders. The Committee further sought clarifications on several points including the background or framing of the regulations, the objectives to be achieved through them, and the infrastructure set up by the Ministry to ensure due compliance of the Regulations.
The officials were encouraged to share their experiences in implementation of the regulations at ground level and what are the practical problems being faced by the stakeholders and how those are being sorted out.
The Joint Secretary, Power, GoI, elaborated that the central government is working on the one nation, one grid and one frequency. He said that a number of schemes are in vogue to ensure power supply to all the habitations in India.
The Principal Secretary, JKPDD informed the meeting that J&K is on the path providing reliable power supply to its customers at reasonable rates. He said that he represents customers and appreciates the liberal policy of power purchase.
The Principal Secretary also gave out that the UT is going to add substantial chunk of power to its kitty in the next 5 years. He said that it is going to address our power woes to a large extent.
The Secretary CERC briefed the committee that CERC was constituted under the erstwhile Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act (ERC), 1998 with primary responsibility of tariff fixation. The responsibilities of the Commission were later widened to tariff fixation, licensing, development of market, introduction of open access, specifying grid code, adjudication of disputes etc.
He further informed the committee that the rules further empowers the Commission to grant licence to undertake trading in electricity as an electricity trader. Additionally, the Commission is also entrusted with the function to fix the trading margin in the inter-State trading of electricity. He further said that currently there is Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Procedure, Terms and Conditions for grant of trading licence and other related matters) Regulation 2020 governing the trade.
The Committee consists of 15 Members representing different political parties and walks of life. The other members currently on the visit to valley includes Vandana Chavan, Dushyant Gautam, Dr Vikas Mahatme, Surendra Singh Nagar, Sh Ram Vichar Netam, Dr Amar Patnaik, Dr Banda Prakash, GVI Narsimha Rao, Tiruchi Siva, Pradeep Tamta, and Vivek K Tankha.
