Dakala (Patiala), December 10
“Saag and makki di roti” has started tasting better than ever before in this “kasba”. The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has prevailed upon the villagers to go back to traditional methods rather than relying on “kundis” to cook this meal.
This “kasba”, more known for its politically surcharged atmosphere than anything else, was reporting transmission losses of as much as 80 per cent till one month back. Today the losses are down to an ideal 12 per cent with residents in many cases shifting back to using wood and doing away with electrical heaters which had been fitted into their “chulhas” and were even used to heat water in their overhead tanks.
Engineers manning the Dakala sub- station say there has been a 50 per cent reduction in the load on the feeder meaning the cost of Rs 18 lakh spent on the exercise can be recovered within three months.
The experiment here is part of a larger one under which an operation circle (Patiala) of the board has for the first time undertaken to shift meters out of houses in urban areas and install them in locked made to order boxes in rural areas in four feeders.
Explaining the exercise, Patiala West Division Executive Engineer, who is behind it, says meters were taken out of urban houses as it was revealed that this simple step thwarted most from fiddling with them and also made new age power theft mechanisms like electronic jammers ineffective. He said however in rural areas, this experiment failed earlier so it was decided to put a group of meters in pillar boxes and lock them up and only allow supply of power from the boxes to individual houses through poly vinyl chloride (PVC) cables.
The board has covered its Ablowal and Dakala rural feeders as well as the Rajindra and Badungar urban feeders. Work is presently on at the Bhupindra Road Baradari feeder and Police Lines, Patiala. At the police lines few personnel have already started moving out to private accommodations as “kundis”, which were a way of life there, are being taken out.
Results have been more than encouraging everywhere. In “kundi-prone” Badungar village in Patiala transmission losses are down to 12 per cent from 55 per cent earlier says SDO Deepinder Garg. “We can give power to another Dakala,” says SDO Sukhbir Singh Cheema adding all feeders in which this project had been carried out were reporting a near 50 per cent reduction in demand.
The projects in rural, semi-urban and posh areas have been a win-win situation for everyone. Zila Parishad member Bhupinder Singh says there has not been a single transformer breakdown since the pillar-boxes were set up. Jassowal sarpanch Balwant Singh whose village has also been covered in the scheme under the Ablowal feeder told TNS “Never in living memory has the voltage been so good”.
To be concluded
