Minister for Power, Sunil Sharma today called for making concerted efforts to cut the transmission and distribution losses in the electricity sector and continuous innovations in work execution to improve overall power scenario in the Valley.The Minister said this at a meeting which he chaired here today to review the functioning of the Power Development Department.Minister of State for Power Development, Asiea Naqash was also present on the occasion.During the meeting, the Minister reviewed present position of power supply and pace of work on various ongoing PDD projects and stressed on augmentation of power infrastructure, and strengthening of the system, which he said is vital to realize the dream of round-the-clock uninterrupted power supply in the State.The Minister while directing the officers to ensure that the revenue collection is increased said that they should fix the targets on quarterly basis and ensure that the full realization is ensured. This would greatly bridge the revenue deficit of the department.Sunil Sharma also reviewed progress on various ongoing works under Prime Minister's Development Programme (PMDP). He stressed on the officers to expedite work on all the projects so that their time-bound completion is ensured. He said the Department needs to gear up to meet people’s expectations.
He said that there is no shortage of funds and called for time-bound completion of the development projects wherever it is necessary to minimize snapping of high-voltage power lines.To ensure speedy repair of electric transformers, the Minister called for increasing the capacity of the Department’s workshops. He said steps are afoot to increase the human resource of the Department to better cater to rising demands and also solve the issue of stagnation and other related service issues of the engineering fraternity.The Minister further said that it is the vision of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to provide electricity to every household and the Government would come to people’s doorstep to provide power connection to every household through Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) and besides several other schemes are being implemented which would ensure that people on the whole get uninterrupted supply. He said that the officers have to ensure that the schemes are completed within the time bound manner to ensure that the initiative of our prime minister is made a success.Commissioner Secretary, PDD Hirdesh Kumar, Managing Director, JKSPDC, Shah Faesal, Secretary Technical, Asgar Majaz, Development Commissioner Power, Shehnaz Goni, Chief Engineers PDD, SE’s and Exens attended the meeting.