Darj meet reviews electrification projects under central schemes

HT, 18 August 2015, Kolkata: The workers of tea gardens do not require No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for electricity connection to their living quarters. However, for a tea garden to upgrade from single point electricity supply to multiple point supply, it has to clear its dues.

However, there is an installment facility in place to help tea gardens clear their bills.

A meeting of Darjeeling District Electricity Committee was held on Monday to review the implementation of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS)—the two electrification projects of the Union government in the district.

With more than 50% of the population of the three hill sub-divisions of the Darjeeling district residing in tea garden areas, the committee discussed the problems faced by tea garden workers regarding electricity connections. “A worker does not need an NOC from the manager to apply for an electricity connection. This has been done away with to make electricity accessible to all provided they are willing to pay their bills,” SS Ahluwalia, Darjeeling MP and the chairman of the committee, said.

The district magistrate of Darjeeling is the convenor of the committee.

As the tea garden workers do not have land documents for the quarters they reside in, an NOC from the manager was required earlier for electricity connections. In some tea estates, a “single point system” is prevalent whereby a single connection exists and distributed to all the workers. The bill is shared amongst all using the connection.

Under this system, bills are usually steep and individuals are not charged in accordance with usage. The bill is evenly distributed among the number of users (not considering usage).

Under the multiple point system, each applicant gets a connection. “If a single point system has to be converted into a multiple point system, all the previous dues have to be cleared. There is a 60 installment scheme over a period of five years whereby, the users have to pay the first installment and commit to clearing the dues in 60 installments,” Ahluwalia said.

The committee, however, skipped any reference to the dues that the WBSEDCL (West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited) incurred during the Gorkhaland agitation from 2008 to 2011.

The GJM, which spearheaded the stir, had asked the public not to pay telephone, electricity bills and various government taxes as part of the non-cooperation movement for Gorkhaland. The arrears have been pegged at about Rs 80 crore.

Quizzed on the WBSEDCL dues, Ahluwalia confirmed that the issue was not discussed.

With regard to electrification of the district, Ahluwalia said, “81% of the district is electrified. Only 19 % remains.”

Under the IPDS scheme, Rs 170 crore is to be spent on the electrification project and another 111 crore under the DDUGJY scheme. “A Detailed Project Report regarding electrification work in the entire district under these two schemes was okayed by this committee today (Monday),” Ahluwalia said.

The work has to be completed in 30 months. “These schemes would help improve infrastructure, distribution networking and other services in the region. Supply and fluctuation problems will be rectified,” SK Dev, regional manager, WBSEDCL, said.

At present, there are 28 electricity sub-stations in the district. Eight more are on the anvil (4 in the rural areas and 4 in urban areas)