Poor power makes Kashmir’s manufacturing industry poorer

Stating that the industrial output in Kashmir has sharply declined by over 50 per cent due to erratic power supply, premier industrial body, Federation Chamber of Industry Kashmir, Monday threatened to close down their units “if the state government did not provide uninterrupted power supply”.

Senior Vice President, FCIK Afaq Qadri while talking to us, he said the government is “indifferent” towards the manufacturing industry in Kashmir which is facing huge problems due to wrong policies of the government. “Our production has dipped by over 50 per cent in last few weeks. The reason is that PDD is resorting to unscheduled and long power curtailments in Industrial estates,” Qadri said adding that if the government “does not provide uninterrupted power supply we would be forced to close down our units and come on roads.”

Qadiri threatened that if the situation does not change for good, “we will come on roads along with our employees and launch massive protests against the government.”

“The industrial sector in Kashmir till September has paid power bills to the tune of Rs 70 crore. Still we are being deprived of the electricity by a government which claims to be promoting the ease of doing business,” he said.

Qadri said that all the industrial estates in Kashmir “are facing power cuts from 6 to 10 PM. There are unscheduled cuts during day time which leaves unit holders idle thus increasing their production costs,” he said.

He said that power situation in industrial estates is bad while in the units in the unorganized sector it is worse.  “Our demand for electricity in IEs is around 150 MW while in Jammu it is more than 460 MW. But our revenue realization in Kashmir is much better than Jammu but despite this fact we are being neglected.”

“We believe Kashmir is being discriminated against because both the Industries as well as the Power ministers are from Jammu,” he alleged and added that that non-seriousness of the government can be gauged from the fact that till now they have failed to come up with a fresh Industrial Policy.

Former President, Federation Chamber of Industry Kashmir, Mehraj ud Din Qureshi said that in his 40 years career in industrial sector, he has never witnessed power curtailments of this scale which are being witnessed at present in Industrial estates.

“Not only our units get closed but even there is no lighting inside the industrial estates which increase chances of theft,” he said.