The pre-paid power supply system : No due certificate is a dinosaur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 28 2016 -

Not exactly 24×7 but the situation has considerably improved.

That is the power supply situation in the State or say at least in Imphal.

Load shedding is today no longer a part of the daily vocabulary and certainly things have progressed from the days when there was load shedding every alternate day.

Rewind to 2012 and earlier and one can still recall the days when there would be power cut from the evening till 10 pm or when there would be power from evening till 10 pm and the rest of the night would be plunged in total darkness.

Candle sticks then continued to be a necessary item in each and every household and besides candle sticks there were the kerosene lamps.

Again it was not unheard of operation theatres in the hospitals suddenly plunging in darkness due to some power cuts.

No wonder then that many better off families did not hesitate in investing some money to buy a generator to light up their homes whenever there was a power cut, which was every alternate day.

Load shedding then was about the official routine and add the unofficial power cuts and one can imagine the situation.

Many reasons were trotted out for the abysmal power supply situation in the State and the most prominent was the abysmal tax recovery from the consumers.

With the State Government having huge amount of outstanding dues to pay to the power plants, it was not possible to avail the needed power from the power plants.

With the consumers held as the primary defaulter in paying up their taxes, the main task at hand was then to deal with power defaulters.

Many brain storming session must have ensued before the State Government decided that Manipur must be the first State to introduce pre-paid system in the North East region in 2012.

Again it was to ensure that power tax defaulters are pulled up that the State Government made it mandatory for all Government employees to produce a no due certificate from the Power Department to receive their monthly salary.

And so it was that the State Power Department was corporatised and in came the Manipur Power Distribution Company Limited in place of the State Electricity Department or Power Department.

A corresponding change in the names of the posts also came into force.

All these are fine and welcome for the main agenda of dealing with the problem of power supply to the people seems to have been addressed to a large extent.

However there are still miles to go as the State, more particularly Imphal, continues to experience unannounced power cuts which greatly inconvenience the people.

Moreover the Government too need to study whether the no due certificate from the employees is still needed for remember all consumers have to pay before and not after consumption.

Makes no sense in relying on a system which was necessary earlier.

The Government need to come around to the idea that the idea of pre-paid system in power consumption is very much like the pre-paid mobile telephones.