The New Indian Express: Kochi:
Sunday, April 06, 2014.
The Kerala
State Electricity Board (KSEB) has a backlog of 8,690 electricity connections
till January 31, 2014. However, the board could not clearly state as to when
power supply could be started for these applicants.
An RTI query
in this regard said: “The time frame for giving the power supply cannot be
revealed.”
As in
January, the board has 1,10,66,760 low tension (LT) consumers across the state.
It is learnt that the applications pending with the KSEB are six months to over
two years old.
But in an
initiative to address the backlog issue, the KSEB had issued a new supply code
recently.
“As per
Regulation 5 of the Terms and Conditions of Supply, 2005, the board shall
provide electricity connection within one month from the date of receipt of
application in complete shape after remitting security deposits and cost of
connection. But the time taken to give supply will vary under some
circumstances,” the RTI reply from KSEB said.
The Kerala Electricity Supply Code, 2014, brings in fundamental changes
in the rules of distribution business hitherto followed in the KSEB, which came
into effect from April 1. “Reasons ranging from non-availability of materials
such as meters and weather-proof wires to shortage of power are the major
hurdles which delays the supply of electricity to the applicants. In some
areas, new electric lines should be laid. The board is taking all efforts to
give connections to all the 8,690 pending applicants as soon as possible,” KSEB
sources said.
Under the new
electricity supply code, the KSEB chief engineer (commercial and tariff) is
authorised to prepare the proposal for realising processing fee in respect of
applications for new connections for obtaining approval of the Electricity
Regulatory Commission.
“Moving
forward, the Chief Engineer (IT), KSEB, will publish updated status of
applications for new connection, conditions for grant of connection in English
and Malayalam in the board website. The applicants will be given unique
application numbers and a waiting list of applicants will also be published on
the website,” the supply code stated.
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