Jharkhand power distribution company is gearing up to achieve the target of metering all the electricity connections in the State in the next one and a half years. The campaign will be carried out with special attention to Government offices and residences, said Managing Director of Jharkhand Urja Vitran Nigam limited Rahul Purwar.
“There are presently 1,500 electricity connections allotted to Government-owned structures in Ranchi, out of which 350 are unmetered. 170 of these require single phase meters whereas the remaining need triple phase meters. We will be regularising all of these connections by November 15,” said Purwar, while talking to media representatives on Sunday.
Including Government buildings, there are presently eleven thousand electricity consumers, out of the total 2.4 lakhs, who have defective meters or are unmetered. These consumers will be regularised, those failing to comply will be disconnected, stated Purwar.
He continued, “By June, Jharkhand recorded 41 percent transmission loss, which we have brought down to 35 percent between then and now. We aim to further lower it to 30 percent by the end of this financial year. Regularising unmetered connections and enhancing our billing efficiency will be a great help in this regard.”
Plans to strengthen electricity network in the city under Phase B of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) are also in the cards facilitating feeder-wise analysis, which in turn will help in detecting electricity theft and unauthorised connections.
On questions of malice behind transfer of official who detected and reported several cases of unauthorised electrical connection in Police line, Purwar right out denied any such intention behind the transfer.
“The shifting was in accordance of provisions and administrative parameters. As for the timing, we have a great bulk of human resources to manage manually, which leaves space for errors, but never for ill-will. The transfers are neither punishment nor reward, they are just part of the system,” Purwar said.
“To increase transparency and efficiency in the process, we are planning to introduce a digital Human Resource Management System, under our Human Resource Planning initiative,” he added.
In addition to this, JUVNl is close to completing the first phase its recruitment drive to hire 550 new employees for various technical positions, with its second phase to begin in December for around 500 posts.
Meanwhile, in light of positive response to online electricity bill payment launched recently, JUVNl is also planning to introduce application for smartphones running, which can be used to apply for connection, pay bills and register grievances.