Citizens must be ready to pay more for electricity consumption from the next financial year as the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) has proposed 24 per cent hike in the existing power tariffs from the financial year 2015-2016.
The UPCl has proposed to increase the power tariffs by 24 per cent under the ongoing power tariff revision process, said SS Yadav, General Managar, UPCl at a meeting in Almora on Wednesday. However, the proposed power tariffs will be applicable only after the consent of the Uttarakhand Electricity Regularity Commission (UERC) is obtained, Yadav maintained.
He appealed to the electricity consumers to follow energy conservation measures and to remain alert about their electricity bills. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, C S Sharma, member (finance) UERC, stressed on the need for curbing misuse of electricity.
The UPCl and other departments concerned will have to work in a coordinated manner to achieve the desired results on the energy conservation front in the state. All the agencies concerned will have to form a concrete work- plan to save energy, he added.
More so, the member (finance) of the UERC also emphasised on the need to create awareness among the people about power conservation. He also urged the people to be alert about their electricity related concerns and the bills so that these grievances could be solved on time.
At the same time, Sharma directed the official concerned of the UPCl to address the grievances of the consumers on priority basis. Stressing on the need to take concrete steps to curb electricity theft, chairman of municipal council, Almora, P C Joshi, proposed to provide 300 electricity polls for Almora city in this meeting.
At the same time, he said that the power tariffs should be revised for the consumers of the hilly and remote areas keeping in view the geographical toughness of these areas. Though Uttarakhand has over the years seen significant hike in power tariffs over the years, its generation capacity more or less remains the same.
According to the UPCl, out of gross availability of power in the state presently remaining around 34.61 million unit (mu) per day, Uttarakhand's power generation from domestic sources is presently only about 9.58 mu per day, while it gets about 12.84 mu per day from Central pool and about 12.19 mu per day from other sources. The demand for power is hovering around 35.35 mu per day in the hill state.