The power crisis is deepening in Kashmir year after year and interestingly the meddling of the successive central governments in the affairs of the state owned power sector is much strong reason for the Kashmir power mess than the mishandling of the power generation policy by the successive popular government in Jammu & Kashmir.Every regimes that comes to power in Jammu & Kashmir commits itself to bring back the power projects constructed by National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) but no one talks about the ways the one time power minister P R Kumaramanglam used to block all the options Farooq Abdullah during his last stint as Chief Minister (1996-2002) tended to exercise for constructing the power projects on his own without the involvement of the National Hydro Power Corporation. Though Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister exercise all options to seek the financial assistance from international finance institutions like World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) during his last stint as Chief Minister (1996-2002) but the then power minister P R Kumaramanglam blasted all the efforts of Abdullah by conveying it to the international financial institutions like International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank that their participation in the construction of the mega power projects won’t be allowed. After seeing his all alternate routes for financing of power projects blocked by the central government , Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister was left with no other option but to seek counter guarantee for the construction of power projects from the central government. Once the power projects were taken up by the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and maintained by it, the demand for the return of power projects was not raised by both National Conference (NC) and PDP but by Taj Mohi Ud Din a minister of the Congress party in the previous Omar Abdullah led NC-Congress coalition government.
To end the continuing meddling of the central government in the affairs of power sector merely shifting of the Principal Secretary Power won’t work but it has become imperative for the Chief Minister to oversee the working of both the Power Development Department (PDD) and as well SPDC herself for resolving the increasing power crisis in Kashmir.
Though divided opinion on the demand for return of power projects within the Congress party triggered a debate but the support of both the National Conference and PDP silenced critics of the demand in Delhi. Now this time when Mehbooba government claims to have taken an assurance from the BJP on the demand for return of power projects, the BJP holding the power portfolio in the Mehbooba government has blasted the proposed construction of the alternate Jammu-Srinagar transmission line at an estimated cost of Rs 500 crores. Interestingly the tender for the alternate Jammu-Srinagar transmission line was unceremoniously cancelled by the then Principal Secretary power Dheeraj Gupta just a month back. Though Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti divested Dheeraj of the charge of administrative secretary power and sent him on punishment posting to Resident Commissioner’s office in Delhi but Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh in presence of MoS Power Farooq Andrabi arranged a farewell party for Dheeraj which shows that PDP and BJP were not on the same page on the shifting of Principal Secretary Power. Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh as minister incharge power has not only sided with Deheeraj Gupta over the cancellation of tender for construction of Jammu-Srinagar alternate transmission line but also over the issue of the management of the Board of Directors of State Power Development Corporation (SPDC). The position of the vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of SPDC traditionally held by Chief Secretary is now held by Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh himself . The failure of the execution of a power project is Ganderbal is also attributed to the increasing influence of Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh as Vice Chairman of the State Power Development Corporation. To end the continuing meddling of the central government in the affairs of power sector merely shifting of the Principal Secretary Power won’t work but it has become imperative for the Chief Minister to oversee the working of both the Power Development Department (PDD) and as well SPDC herself for resolving the increasing power crisis in Kashmir.
