Baldev dev Singh Billawaria chairman Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) while levelling serious allegations against the Power Development Department (PDD) criticised it for its dismal performance. Talking to reporters here, he accused the department of misleading the people. Billawaria said that the PDD says that it has surplus power but if there is surplus power, then why there is panic among the people about the power cuts in the city. He raised question that why the department is not able to replace the old wires of electricity, why low capacity transformers are not being upgraded without the intervention of the political leaders and why people are not getting full supply of electricity even during Summer season. Billawaria said that these are questions that are not answered by the department. He said that the lockdown has already made people financially weak still the PDD has sent together the electricity bills for three-months. Due to the privatization of electricity, the electric meters have been stuck in the homes of the people but from where in this situation people should pay the bill for three months. In such a situation, the department should adjust its electricity bills of the three months till the upcoming December, so that people will get time to pay bills and they will get relief while the department will also get its revenue. Billawaria also questioned the department on sending the bills amounting to lakhs of rupees to some consumers which are not justified any way. He said that the amnesty scheme, by which people were getting relief from heavy bills, should be extended till December and provides relaxation from old bills by at least 50 percent so that people can come forward to pay the old bills. Otherwise, in the coming days, the load will increase further due to these heavy bills.
