Pre-paid fine, but much more needed
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 23, 2012 -

The latest move by the Electricity Department of Manipur to introduce Pre-paid power supply on a trial basis in bazar areas starting from Paona Bazar from March, on the face of it, looks like a sensible move though it might be premature to pass a definitive judgment on it.

From the details emerging about the new system, two things would about it plead favourably for its introduction. The first being, since the customer can use power supply only after certain amount of money has been deposited initially, or prepaid, there will be no pilferage of power supply.

Another important outcome of introduction of the pre-paid system will be that there is less likely to be wastage of electricity, since the charges of electricity used by the customer will be continuously deducted from the amount already deposited and the power supply will be terminated once the pre-paid amount is exhausted, the customer will take extra care to cut down on unessential uses of electricity, thereby helping saving electric energy to some extend.

The provision to allow customers to carry on drawing power supply in case their pre-paid amount get exhausted on a holiday as also to enable them to check their balance to plan ahead will be to their convenience. But the more important question is, will these customers who will avail of the Pre-paid Power Supply get uninterrupted power?

The introduction of the Pre-paid Power Supply is hardly likely to bring about any improvement in the power situation in Manipur. The amount of power the introduction of this system is going to save by way of prohibiting pilferage and wastage will be too insignificant to make up the huge gap between what the state requires at present and what the Electricity Department has been able to supply.

The department has been making a lot of noises regarding illegal connections and the non-payment of electricity bills by the customers as if these are the prime reasons for the sorry state of power situation in the country.

The simple fact of the matter is that the state has come to this precarious situation as a cumulative effect of faulty policy decisions and numerous omissions and commissions committed by officials of the department.

On the one hand, Manipur just doesn’t have enough power at its disposal to meet the demands of its populace – neither does it produce enough nor is it in a position to buy from other states and central power agencies to make up for the deficiencies.

Major chunk of what ever little is available have been cornered by the high and the mighty in the state, who get uninterrupted power supply which are designated as ‘VIP’ lines.

That such an arrangement is there is a fact which is not hidden from anyone with the barest minimum knowledge about how this state works but the department stoutly refuted its existence, that too in reply to an RTI query.

The controversies surrounding the acquisition of defective electrical equipments like transformers leading to constant breakdowns which only gets repaired when the locality concerned pool in financial resources, we doubt if such a practice is prevalent anywhere else in the country. The active connivance of department officials in illegal connection and pilferages etc. List of misdemeanors of this department is long and never ending.

Needlessly to say, the Electricity Department or rather many of its officials and employees will have to do quite of bit of retrospection and self correction if it is genuinely interested in truly becoming a facilitator in improving the power situation in the state.

Mere introduction of the Pre-paid power supply system will not amount to making much headway.