JAMMU, Jan 11 — The state government has approached the Centre for immediate help in tiding over the acute power crisis in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Power Minister, Mr S.S. Skathia, has visited Delhi and explained to the Union Ministry for Energy the reasons for the power crisis. The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, too, has requested the Government of India to come to the rescue of the people and warned the Centre that the crisis may result in a law and order problem.

Official sources said the state government has conveyed to the Centre that the existing power crisis is the “gift of nature.” A sharp fall in the water level of the Jhelum, which, feeds three major hydel projects in the Kashmir valley, has reduced the capacity of these plants to just 10- 20 per cent of the installed capacity of generation of electricity.

The Centre has been informed that the water level in the Jhelum has continued to show a dwindling trend year after year. As a result, the graph of power generation has shown a downward trend every year. Even Salal in Jammu had not been able to generate to its optimum capacity of 600 mw on one account or the other.

The state government has told the Centre that the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 with Pakistan has imposed severe restrictions on the use of riverwaters of the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus. The treaty has forced the state to suffer an annual loss of Rs 6,000 crore and repeated pleas for compensating the loss have not been accepted by the Government of India.

Since the state government is faced with an acute fiscal crisis, its arrears have mounted and it is not in a position to pay over Rs 1500 crore to the Northern Grid which has refused to sell additional power to tackle the crisis.

The state has also argued that the power sector has been neglected by the Centre. Hence, the state’s potential has not been harnessed for power generation. The Centre has been told that the state has a potential of generating 15,000 mw of electricity but so far not more than 1,000 mw have been tapped.

The state Government has urged the Centre to provide relief to the people because seven hydel projects to be executed by the NHPC and six other projects in the state sector will take several years for commissioning. The Chief Minister has appealed to the Centre to either release additional funds for purchasing power from the Northern Grid or the grid should be directed to release an additional quota of electricity for a couple of months because by the end of March he expects improvement in the generation of power by local projects.

The Chief Minister has shown much interest in the progress of work at the Bhagliar power project, which on completion will generate 450 mw of electricity. In addition work has been started on the 650 mw Sawalakot power project.