Around four lakh illegal electric connections in J

Jammu, July 18 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Power, Nawang Rigzin Jora hassaid the officials, including engineers and junior Engineer, of electricity department would also be hold guilty for power theft in their areas.

Talking to media persons yesterday he said the department has started initiatives against all those who are involved in power theft in the entire state. There are more than 15 lakh consumers in the state but we have registered only 11 to 12 lakh consumers as around four lakh people using electricity illegally.

Minister said the government has been facing acute power shortage, as the revenue target of power supply is not rational resulting in pilferage of power. As a result of which, state has been unable to purchase the required power from Northern Grid, he added.

Reacting to the queries of the consumers regarding the installation of e-meters, the Minister said a target has been fixed for all the districts in the state for E-metering and revenue realisation and any trailing will be seriously viewed and the concerned officers would be held sole responsible for not adhering to the guidelines.

He said to avoid the power theft the department working on the installation of meter and fully meter-based connection in major cities like Jammu and Srinagar would be provided till October this year.

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