Voluntary Disclosure Scheme: PSPCL collects ₹47 lakh agriculture power connection fee
Agriculture power consumers can get their connections’ load increased by paying ₹2,500 per bhp to the PSPCL under the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme
Under the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) launched by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to increase the load of agricultural power connections in rural areas, Ludhiana Central Zone teams collected ₹47,40,745 as service connection charge and initial security in two days — Saturday and Sunday — after the consumers declared a total load of 1750.45 BHP.
Numerous VDS camps were organised in total 77 villages, where a total of 496 consumers availed the benefit under the said scheme.
The camps were organised by multiple divisions of the Ludhiana in its East, West, Sub-Urban and Khanna circles following the instructions of state power minister Harbhajan Singh.
Speaking about the scheme, Ludhiana Central Zone chief engineer Parvinder Singh Khamba said it would be highly beneficial for the agriculture power consumers as they can get their load increased by paying the fee without penalty, adding that the fee for increasing the load has also been decreased from ₹4,750 per bhp to ₹2,500 per bhp.
“The consumers at times tend to install bigger motors to water their fields than the permissible load causing overloading of transformers and ultimately breakage of machinery and financial loss to the electricity department. This is a genuine opportunity for such consumers to get their loads increased without any penalties”, he said.
In the East circle, a total three camps were organised including two in Sundar Nagar and one in Focal Point division, where 64 consumers availed the benefit of the said scheme while declaring a total load of 222.85 bhp. An amount of ₹6,00,525 was collected as service connection charge and initial security.
The west circle, however, saw only six camps including two each in Aggar Nagar and Estate divisions and one each at City West and Model Town division. A total of 31 consumers declared a total load of 111.1 bhp, against which an amount of ₹2,99,150 was collected.
Under the Sub-Urban circle, 30 camps were set up in Sub-Urban, Adda Dakha, Jagraon, Raikot and Ahmedgarh divisions, where 210 consumers declared a load of 735.5 bhp accounting for ₹20,07,450.
Meanwhile, 38 camps were set up in Khanna, Doraha, Sirhind, Amloh and MGG divisions under Khanna circle, where 191 consumers declared 681 bhp load and an amount of ₹18,33,620 was collected.
Khamba said the department aimed to increase the load before the commencement of the paddy season, adding that only original owners could get the load increased earlier, but now representatives can also get the sanctioned load increased by showing the required documents at the camps.
“The scheme is open for all such consumers and no deadline for closure of this scheme has been announced yet by the Government as it wants maximum consumers to avail the benefit,” he said.
Khamba further appealed to the consumers to avail maximum benefits through the scheme
