Srinagar, Dec 05: The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry(KCCI) on Monday urged J&K’s Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha to announce amnesty of power tariffs in favor of commercial and industrial consumers.
The business body, in a statement, said that the industrialists of Jammu & Kashmir region has almost collapsed due to the pandemic Covid -19 crises.
President KCCI, Sheikh Ashiq Ahmad drew attention of LG Sinha and chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta towards the industrial sector of Jammu & Kashmir saying due to the financial crunch a number of units have not availed the previous power amnesty Scheme.
He requested the authorities not to disconnected the power supplies forcing the industrialists/ commercial establishments to close down their units.
“Recently we met Principal Secretary, Power Development Department , J&K and we are waiting for the outcome of our suggestions given in the meeting and we request LG Administration to announce amnesty to the Commercial Consumers at par with Domestic Consumers so that they can pay their (pending) electricity bills waiving interest and penalties besides after settling the same with the Power Development Department,” he said.
The KCCI said that the power situation in the Kashmir both for industries as also domestic use remains to be uncertain and erratic load shedding and curtailment of power is frequent beyond tolerance, the supply is erratic yet the bills are raised irrationally.
” Transformers damaged take month to get replaced leaving the people on lurk to cry for the essential requirement of electricity. With the onset of winter, unscheduled and prolonged power cuts have become an unwritten rule, not only in non-metered areas, but metered areas as well,” it said.
“The administration must come out immediately with a comprehensive power supply policy to cope with intermittent and unscheduled power cuts during this harsh winter,” the statement said.