Power Promise Unmet: J&K Grapples With Outages as Omar Faces Opposition Flak

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has received criticism from opposition parties for his failure to keep the electoral promise of providing 200 units of free electricity, even as Jammu and Kashmir is facing frequent power cuts due to the deficit electricity supply.

The UT is witnessing outages as the authorities have managed to harness only 3540 MW of electricity, which is nearly 23 per cent of the estimated hydro power potential of 18,000 MW. In the state sector, J&K has a generation capacity of 1197 MW, which drops significantly during the winters due to a drop in water level.

Managing Director of Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation limited (KPDCL) Mehmood Ahmad Shah, says that there is a shortfall in power availability. “Generation from the state sector currently remains 200 to 300 megawatts only for the entire Jammu and Kashmir, as against the demand of 3,000 megawatts. We are also purchasing power to meet the demand for electricity,” he says. 

The gap between requirement and availability has remained between 14-16 per cent. However, opposition parties have criticised the ruling National Conference government for failure to provide 200 units of free electricity, which the party had promised in its 2024 election manifesto.   

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently remarked that the use of meters was necessary to provide 200 free units.

People’s Democratic Party spokesperson Mohit Bhan says, “Before the   polls, the National Conference promised 200 units of free electricity irrespective of their economic status, but  Omar Abdullah has forgotten the promise while in power. He was against the installation of smart meters, yet the government now claims these devices are necessary. But have they benefited Jammu and Kashmir? We don't think so, as power cuts are rampant even in metered areas, and flat rates for Below the Poverty Line (BPL) households have been discontinued,” he says.

Bhan adds that the previous People Democratic Party (PDP) government had sought compensation or the return of power projects developed using J&K’s water resources by central government. “The elected government should adopt the policy to seek the return of power projects,” he says.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manzoor Bhat claims, “The government claims that several areas in Kashmir get round-the-clock electricity are a hoax. Only influential and affluent people benefit. The areas that the current government is talking about that they are getting regular power supply are the VIP areas only. The common man in Kashmir has suffered. People have realised now that the situation was better under the BJP government, and the conditions have only deteriorated since Omar assumed office,” he says.

Officials, however, say that metering was necessary not only to reduce the transmission and distribution losses, but also to provide a waiver in the tariff. Jammu and Kashmir also has high power transmission and distribution losses, while till last year, Power Development Department (PDD) had installed 6.4 lakh smart meters, and there are plans to connect houses with an additional 14.07 lakh  meters.

A senior official of the Power Development Department (PDD) says that metering was needed to work out any slabs to provide 200 units of free electricity to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir. “As of now, there are many areas where there are no meters, and people are also resisting the installation of meters. To provide free electricity, we need to measure the power consumption first. How do we do that? We need to have a device for that, and that's why metering is necessary,” he says.

According to officials, the government could extend the benefits of waiver on the 200 units of electricity to low income groups in Jammu and Kashmir through the installation of solar rooftop setups, for which the Central government provides funds and also offers two units of free electricity for each day.

“Our funding from the Central government also depends on our progress on power reforms to curtail the transmission and distribution losses.  There is also monitoring which happens at the national level, and we also upload the data regularly on the National Feeder Monitoring set up, and the Central government assesses over progress on power reforms,” says a PDD official.