Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, said the Power department is incurring an annual revenue loss of about 300 crores and there is an urgent need to revisit the communitisation of Electricity Management.
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, said this in his concluding remarks on matters of urgent public importance under Rule-50 pertaining to “Power Sector Reforms by Reviewing Communitisation of Electricity Management in Urban and Rural Areas under the Nagaland Communitisation of Public Institution & Services Act 2002 (Act No. 2 of 2002) – Sensitization and Awareness thereof.”
Appreciating the proposed reforms measures highlighted by Minister of Power, KG Kenye, Rio said these are much needed in supplying quality and uninterrupted power supply to the domestic and industrial consumers.
“Due to faster urbanisation, there is not much difference in lifestyle and usage of energy intensive appliances between urban and rural areas. If the present trend of increased power demand/consumption continues, the communitised villages will be one of the major contributors for huge accumulated losses to the State in terms of revenue,” he added.
Rio pointed out that the desired progress could not be made in the installation of smart meters in Dimapur, the commercial hub, due to resistance from various Public NGOs, GBs union and Chairmen of Wards/colonies. To this, he highlighted that the installation of prepaid meter is now mandatory as per the Central Govt notification Dt. 26.02.2021.
He also said, the biggest challenge now arises for 100% smart metering coverage across the state under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). The State Cabinet has approved the RDSS Action Plan in totality, implementing of smart metering is becoming a challenge to the department due to resistance by the GBs and ward Chairmen, he added.
He apprised the house that smart prepaid metering is conditional for release of funds for infrastructure under the RDSS, hence, installation of smart prepaid meters is imperative to avail the much-needed Central Government funds for development of State’s Power Sector.
Further, he said Power Sector is one of the major defaulting department in revenue generation and it is important to help the department to recoup its operating cost/expenditures from its consumers to ensure – stable, quality, affordable power supply so as to leverage all-round -economic growth and infrastructural developmental activities in the State.
