Jammu, Apr 21: In a power deficit state like Jammu and Kashmir where the government is spending whooping budgetary support of more than Rs. 2000 crores on power purchase, the per capita consumption of electricity is 79 units more than the national average.
 Sources informed Greater Kashmir that the per capita consumption of power in Jammu and Kashmir has touched 750 units which is quite higher to the national average of 671 units per capita consumption.
 “The state government had spent huge budgetary support of Rs. 2330 Crores for the purchase of power in year 2010-11 for meeting the increasing power demand of state, and state government had averagely spent around Rs. 5.77 for every unit of energy supplied from the budget” sources said.
 They said that Punjab has topped the list of five northern states in per capita power consumption, which is even double to the national per capita average.  “Per capita consumption of power in Punjab is around 1506 units which is more than twice to the national average of 671 units” sources said, adding that Haryana followed the list, where per capita consumption is 1208 units.
 Sources further added that although Jammu and Kashmir was on 4th rank in the list of five states and was only above the Uttrakhand in per capita consumption of power “Only Uttrakhand is below than J&K which consumes 706 units per capita power while J&K consumes 750 units of power per capita” they added.
 Pertinently the unrestricted power demand of state is 2425 MWs, while the the “suppressed” demand is 1492 MW. The state run projects only produces 929.70 MW of power while the state also gets around 201.6 MWs from National Hydel Project Corporation (NHPC) run projects. For remaining shortfall of 1295 MWs of power, the state is depending on other states and agencies for purchasing of power” sources said.
 In 2010-11 the total expenditure on the distribution (including power purchase) was Rs. 3,383 crore, while the total income including sale of power was Rs 1,053 crore, sources maintain, adding that the budgetary support given by state government was to the tune of Rs 2,330 crore (around 69 percent) for 4,041 Metric Units of power.
 “An analysis of the data revealed that for every unit of energy supplied to the consumers by the department during 2010-11, the state had spent an amount of Rs. 5.77 from its budget” the sources said.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST