SRINAGAR: Terming the demonstrations and strikes in favour of certain assumed demands, by some employees, as ‘totally illegal’, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Power Development Department, Tuesday warned the agitating employees of ‘consequences’ as per law in case of violations'. 

Reproducing the Government instructions, J&K Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, and ruling of the Hon'ble Supreme Court for dealing with the issue, the government in a circular detailed out that the Rule 20 (ii) of the Jammu and Kashmir Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, 1971 reads that "Demonstrations and strikes: No Government employees shall resort to, or in any way abet any form of strike in connection with any matter pertaining to his service or the service of any other Government employee".

“The (specified) provision of law is not merely declaratory, but will definitely entail consequences in case of violation, as it clearly prohibits demonstrations and strikes by the Government employees,” the circular remarked. 

“Vide SRO-160 dated 14-7-1995, the Jammu And Kashmir Civil Services (Recognition of Service Association) Rules, 1995 have been issued by the General Administration Department, which shall apply to the Service Associations of all regular civil employees of the Government, except; (a) Gazetted Services; (b) Persons in industrial establishments employed mainly in managerial or administrative capacity, and those who being employed in supervisory capacity drawing salary in pay scales above Rs.3200/- per mensem; and (c) Police Personnel,” reads the circular, a copy of which lies with GNS. 

“These rules further provide, i) Service Associations already recognised: A Service Association which has been recognised by the Government before the commencement of these rules and in respect of which the recognition is subsisting at such commencement, shall continue to be so recognized for a period of one year from such commencement or till the date on which the recognition is withdrawn, whichever be earlier; ii) Rule 6(k): Conditions for continuance of recognition of Service Association:- The Service Association shall not do any act or assist in the doing of any act which, if done by a Government servant, would contravene any of the provisions of the Services (Conduct) Rules and iii) Rule 9: Withdrawal of Recognition: If in the opinion of the Government, a Service Association recognised under these rules has failed to comply with any of the conditions set out in rule-5 or rule-6 or rule-7, the Government may, after giving an opportunity to the Service Association to present its case, withdraw the recognition accorded to such Association,” reads the circular.
 
“In terms of O.M No: GAD-ADMOIII/158/2023-09-GAD dated 03.11.2023, all the Administrative Secretaries were requested to circulate the instructions to employees in their respective to desist from
Department(s) all such uncalled for demonstrations and strikes: an act of serious indiscipline and misconduct.”
“Further, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in case Appeal (Civil) No.5556/2003 titled T.K. Rangarajan vs Government of Tamil Nadu (SC 2003) has held that the employees have fundamental, statutory or moral right to resort to strike as there is no law regarding it, and also, according to various service and conduct rules, they are prohibited to go on a strike,” reads the circular. 

The Hon'ble Apex Court, as per the Circular, further stated: 'a strike is a powerful weapon; it affects the society as a whole, and the government employees cannot go on a strike affecting society. Government employees cannot claim that they can take the Vishal society at ransom by going on strike. Even if there is injustice to some extent, as presumed by such employees, in a democratic welfare State, they have to resort to the machinery provided under different statutory provisions for redressal of their grievances. Strike as a weapon is mostly misused which results in chaos and total maladministration reads the circular.’ 

"The instructions/rules are brought to the notice of all concerned, and if any employee is found indulging in organizing, or taking part in demonstration(s) and/or strike(s) in violation of the rules and instructions mentioned above, strict action as per law shall be taken against such employee(s)," reads the circular further. 

The issuance of the circular has come after employees of Kashmir Power Development Corporation (KPDCL) staged a silent protest in Srinagar recently, demanding the reinstatement of their suspended colleagues. (GNS)

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited (KPDCL) suspended fifteen more employees on Saturday and initiated disciplinary proceedings against them.

The Managing Director of KPDCL and its administrative officials issued multiple suspension orders against its employees.

The suspension and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against ten linemen, meter readers, and technicians.

KPDCL, in different suspension orders of its employees, said that disciplinary proceedings under Rule 33 of the JK Civil Services (Classification, Control, and Appeal) Rules, 1956, are contemplated against them.

Accordingly, the officials placed all 15 employees under suspension with immediate effect.

The suspended officers, shall remain attached with the respective Executive Engineer till further orders.

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Government on Tuesday put under suspension twelve engineers of J/KPDCL over disciplinary proceedings under rule-33 of J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956. 

Among the suspended Engineers include; Er. Gulzar Ahmad Khan, I/C Sub division Budgam KPDCL, Er. Sheikh Mustafa Hussain, I/C Sub Division MR Gunj ED-III, Er., Farooq Raina, I/C Sub Division Kangan, Er. Rajnesh Sharma, I/C AEE Sub Division Dharmi ED-Reasi, JPDCL, Er. Vinod Kumar, I/C AEE Sub- Division Ramkot ED Kathua JPDCL, Er. Sushil Angral, AEE Sub Division/Reasi KPDCL, Er. Sandeep Kumar, AEE Sub Division Pouni, ED Reasi, Er. Waseem Yatoo, JE Sheikh Bagh ED-I Srinagar, Er. Kaunsar Shafi, JE ED-I Nishat Srinagar, Er. Kuldeep Kachroo, JE Sheikh Bagh, ED-I, Srinagar, Er. Mohammad Imran Khuroo, JE, SD-1, ED-Sopore and Er. Rouf Maqbool, JE, Rainawari, ED-IV Srinagar.

The suspended officers, as per separate orders copies available with GNS, shall remain attached with the respective Executive Engineer till further orders. 

The Rule-33, an official told GNS, is related to 'poor revenue collection'. (GNS)

SRINAGAR: With the commencement of the holy month of Ramadhan, Kashmir valley continues to face unscheduled power curtailments cuts— leaving the consumers to reel under darkness especially at Suhoor and fast breaking time.

Locals from almost all districts of Kashmir region said that the power scenario has worsened from the past four days.

One of the locals of south Kashmir’s Pulwama area, Razaq Ahmad said, “Despite being a local of a smart metered area, the power is playing hide and seek with us.”

"At the time of installing smart meters, we were promised an uninterrupted power supply. All I can see is a fake promise by the Power Development Department,” he said.

Ahmad said that the people of his area continue to reel under darkness. “Irony is that we are not even being provided electricity especially at Suhoor and Iftar time.”

Similarly, the residents of Qazigund area narrated the same ordeal.

One of the locals of Qazigund, Rashid Ahmad Khan said that he has never witnessed such a bad scenario of power in Ramadhan.

The 45-year-old Khan said, “This is the worst ever power scenario in my area. I request the Lieutenant Government administration to intervene in this matter and resolve the matter at earliest.”

Many such calls were received from the electricity consumers of Srinagar and north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts. Besides, the electricity consumers of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal and Budgam districts expressed antipathy against the authorities for failing to provide uninterrupted electricity.

Inhabitants of several villages of Lower Kangan area in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district also expressed resentment against the PDD for failing to provide adequate electricity to them especially in the holy month of Ramadan.

The residents of areas said that they were not getting the electricity as per the schedule and were facing tremendous hardships especially during Sehri and Iftar times.

The locals from Prang, Kangan, Akhal Anderwan Haripora, Wussan, Chattergul, Kachnabal, Najwan, Wayil, Nunner and main town Ganderbal said they were receiving electricity for a maximum of two to four hours a day.

The locals of Kashmir valley appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir administration to resolve the matter at earliest.

A top official of KPDCL told KNO that it has provided smooth power supply across Kashmir Division. “There are some local issues and snags which are taken care of.”

On asking about the unscheduled power cuts and change in power curtailment in the month of Ramadhan the official said, “Consumers have a habit of generalising things. Majority of the faults in 11 KV feeders is due to system overloads and massive misuse of electricity by exceeding sanctioned load in non metered areas.”

The official said that the rural belt was almost all flat rated.

It also said that because of DT outages due to excessive overload, some feeders were under fault due to overnight rains and snow in certain areas.

Meanwhile, Principal Secretary Power Development Department H Rajesh Prasad said, “Our power supply position remains the same.”

On asking about any change in the power curtailment schedule in the month of Ramadhan, the Principal Secretary said that there was no change in it. “We have not taken any decision in this regard and as of now there is no change in power curtailment schedule.”

Pertinently, earlier this week, Chief Engineer KPDCL (Distribution) Sandeep Seth said that it was charting out the plan and mechanism to resolve the power curtailment issues for the month of Ramadhan.

“We are working on it and most likely, the new curtailment schedule will be implemented from the first day of Ramadhan,” he said. (KNO)

SRINAGAR: Amid severe wintry conditions, power and heating system failure in the Srinagar wing of High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Monday triggered strong reaction by the court for “pathetic and unbelievable condition.”  

“During Court hours, the High Court has suffered a complete power failure. The generator is also not working. There are no lights. The air heating unit (AHU) is also not functional,” a Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi observed during hearing of a case.  

“It is pathetic and unbelievable that this is the condition of Srinagar Wing of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh,” the court said.

The court observed that the power failure took place at about 09:45 a.m. and was still not restored until about 11.28 a.m. when the court passed the order.

“The matter has gone from bad to worse. There is a permanent solution that is required,” the court said as per an order, a copy of which lies with GNS, adding, “This Court requests the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to pass necessary orders to solve this problem forthwith.”

“The solution may vary from having a separate power line to the High Court which does not experience any downtime and also supported by generators of such capacity which can power the entire High Court and also the air heating unit without interruption in the event of the dedicated power supply to the High Court fails,” the court said. 

It has listed the matter again on February 21 “at the top of the list for further orders.” (GNS)

SRINAGAR: A thirteen year old boy was killed on Saturday due to electric shock in Mendhar area of Poonch district, officials said.

Officials told GNS that a boy died when accidently he came into contact with electricity. He was immediately shifted to SDH Mendhar by his parents for treatment. However doctors at the hospital declared him brought dead.

He has been identified as Sayed Shabhaz Ali(13) son of Sajjad Hussain Shah resident of Chjjila Kiyani.

BMO Mendhar Dr Ashfaq Ahmad also confirmed to GNS regarding the death of the boy.

Meanwhile, police have registered the case in this regard and investigation has been taken up. (GNS)

SRINAGAR: Kashmir Power Distribution Company Limited (KPDCL) Thursday announced an increase in curtailment by 2 to 2.5 hours across Kashmir Valley during peak hours temporarily. 

“This is for the information of the general public that due to a drastic reduction in power generation resulting in reduced availability of power, KPDCL shall be forced to temporarily increase the curtailment by 2 to 2.5 hours across Kashmir Valley during peak hours,” KPDCL said in a post on X, according to GNS. 

“The temporary increase shall be reversed as soon as sufficient power is available,” it said, adding, “The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.” (GNS)

SRINAGAR: The Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri Tuesday convened a meeting of Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) to review power scenario in Kashmir division.

Addressing the meeting of officers, the Div Com directed the concerned to act humanely in event of harsh cold climatic conditions and replace the damaged Distribution Transformer (DT) to ease peoples sufferings.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Managing Director, KPDCL; Chief Engineer KPDCL/ KPTCL, Generation/ Planning and Procurement Kashmir and other concerned officers in person, besides all Deputy Commissioner’s of Kashmir Division through Video Conferencing.

At the outset the MD KPDCL briefed the meeting about the power scenario in Kashmir through a PowerPoint presentation which includes average demand met; maximum demand un-restricted and average curtailment. He informed that there has been no distress cut after additional allocation of 200 MWs of power across Kashmir Valley.

The Div Com reviewed district wise details of average curtailment hours in metered and non-metered both in urban and rural areas of Kashmir division.

Meeting also discussed the present Distribution Transformer Buffer status of KPDCL and replacement time. The Div Com directed the concerned to ensure sufficient buffer stock of DTs in each district and simultaneously it should also be ensured that different capacities of DTs are in buffer to replace equal capacity of DTs.

It was informed that the average time taken to repair the damaged transformers has been reduced, with restoration time of less than 12 hours in urban areas and in a day in rural areas.

The meeting also reviewed the status of smart metering under PMDP-U phase-I and II.

The Div Com sought the feedback of damaged DTs on a daily basis to his office besides where replacement has taken more than one day.

He also directed the DCs and other concerned to launch drives against the power thefts vigorously to prevent pilferage.

SRINAGAR: Managing Director, Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL), Mussarat Islam, has emphasised upon the Superintending Engineers of all 06 O&M Circles of Kashmir Division to improve billing and collection efficiency which has a direct bearing on the revenue realisation and reduction in AT &C losses.

He passed these directions during a meeting held today to review the functioning of the corporation with focus on inspections and disconnections, revenue realisation, DT damages and strict adherence to curtailment schedule.

Chief Engineer, Distribution, Javed Yousuf Dar, Superintending Engineers of all O&M Circles, Executive Engineers of all Electric Divisions and SDOs attended the meeting.

Laying emphasis on strict adherence to curtailment schedule, MD reiterated the earlier directions passed by the Principal Secretary Power and impressed upon all the officers to ensure that no unscheduled power cuts are undertaken. He also laid stress on maintaining strict vigil over feeders which are vulnerable to power pilferage by way of hooking, bypass of meters and exceeding agreed load.

The meeting was informed that KPDCL has conducted 14,893 inspections during the month of November and imposed a fine of Rs.1.80 crore. As many as 995 illegal connections were regularised and a load of 2.9 MW added. The KPDCL went into overdrive in the last 10 days of November, following complaints of large-scale hooking and non-payment of dues by defaulting consumers.

MD KPDCL and Chief Engineer (Distribution) appreciated the escalated drives of inspections and disconnections which are crucial to improvement in power scenario, especially in peak winter months.

During the current financial year, KPDCL has conducted 78,673 inspections and regularised 31,706 connections in Kashmir Division, the meeting was informed. KPDCL has also disconnected 13229 consumers for want of non-payment of energy dues, for which Rs.4.83 crore arrears were collected from defaulting consumers in November alone.

Appreciating the performance of all Electric Divisions in launching a massive drive against power pilferage, MD KPDCL advised all the Executive Engineers to improve billing and collection efficiency, which is at the core of bringing down AT&C losses. He fixed the responsibility of concerned SDOs to further improve revenue realisation, which will be continuously monitored.

Expressing concern over slight increase in DT damage rate, MD KPDCL directed all AEEs to maintain log of damaged transformers and its replacement within the timelines fixed by keying in relevant details on the newly revised designated portal.   

MD KPDCL also directed SEs to prepare Circle-wise post-snow preparedness plans for real time restoration of power supply. He advised the SEs to also keep an eye on weather forecast which shall allow them mobilise men and machinery in advance. (GNS)

SRINAGAR: The Democratic Progressive Azad Party has expressed grave concern over the persisting electricity crisis in Kashmir Valley, particularly during the winter season.

The party spokesperson said that electricity stands to be a jugular vein in every society, and the dire need for it intensifies during the winter days, especially in Kashmir Valley. Unfortunately, for decades, the Power Development Department has failed to take advanced measures to address the power crisis during winter, causing immense suffering to the poor consumers.”

"Despite possessing a hydroelectric power potential exceeding 25,000 MWs, the inadequate production of only 3,500 MWs, urging accountability for this significant shortfall,” the party said adding that someone has to take the responsibility for this alarming disparity between potential and actual production. (KNT)