Keonjhar: Rural electrification in Keonjhar has failed to make much progress due to soft attitude of the district administration and Nesco towards contractual agencies.
Though the Collector has been insisting on completion of 33/11 km sub-station work and household electrification at several places, there has been inordinate delay. Discontent is brewing among people in many areas.
Low voltage, frequent load shedding in summer has added to fuel unhappiness. The staff working at the ground level have to face fury of the people over load-shedding and overload. Bill collection has been affected.
The energy department is monitoring the electrification by contractual agencies. Cores of rupees are being spent towards rural electrification, but delay has led to cost escalation. Another problem is that five mega voltage amplifiers were supposed to be installed to sort out low voltage problem, it has not been done as yet. It was alleged that consumers use low voltage problem, but they have to pay full bill. Over load has been causing damage to electrical tools at times.
The government had floated tenders for installation of 13 sub-stations in 13 blocks. NTPC was awarded the contract of this work. But in reality, Godrej company is executing the work.
The work was started from March last year, but it is nowhere near completion. However, the Nesco and the district administration which are supervising the work, are not taking action against the contractor.
When work is yet to be completed, staff engaged in the project are being transferred elsewhere. The Collector expressed his displeasure over the progress of the work at a review meeting in April. The energy department is not giving exact date about progress of the work and is not taking any action against the contractual agency.
It was also alleged that thousands of utility poles were purchased fro electrification in 150 villages, but nothing was known about what happened to the poles. Besides, the agency was accused of of not depositing EPF contribution for workers working under it.
Every day, the district administration is flooded with complaints about non-electrification. However, superintending engineer of Nesco Narayan Patra said that the contractual agency is carrying out the work properly.”It will take time. All work will be completed by June. Permission has been taken from the government in this regard,” he added.
Rashiranjan Mohapatra, project director of Godrej company said that there was delay in the work due to shutdown. “The issue was sorted out. Transformer work is already over. As employees have been deployed in cyclone-hit areas for restoration work, the work was hit for the time being” he explained.