Mail News Service
Imphal, July 9 : A Performance Audit on Power Distribution Activities of Electricity Department of Government of Manipur was conducted for the period 2006-07 to 2010-11 to ascertain whether the Department achieved the aims and objectives of the National Electricity Plan (NEP) and to examine how far the distribution reforms have been achieved.
The CAG report placed in the Assembly said the Department did not prepare long term plan and fix any target for addition of substations, high tension lines, low tension lines and transformers and therefore, performance of the Department with reference to the targets could not be assessed in audit. The Department added 1013 substations, 895.57 CKM of high tension lines, 973.83 CKM of low tension lines and 83.64 MVA of transformers.
Under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), the Department targeted 462 villages for electrification during 2007-11. Against this target, the achievement till March 2011 was 289 villages (63 per cent) The execution of the programme was delayed resulting in non-achievement of target of 100 per cent electrification of villages before 31 March 2010 as envisaged in NEP.
Despite shortage of power in the Stat the Department sold power outside tl State, leading to increase in powt deficit from 104.91 MU in 2006-071 308.56 MU in 2010-11. Th Department purchased tri-vecto, meters, Kiosks, and static meters ii excess of immediate requirement leading to blocking up of funds to the tune of Rs 10.85 crore. There were energy losses ranging from 46.6 to 59.84 per cent during 2006-11 due to unmetered supplies, defective meters, and theft of electricity by unauthorised consumers.
The Department exhibited poor financial management by not maintaining pro-forma accounts, profit and loss accounts, balance sheet etc. There were cases of non-surrender of anticipated savings in time and incurring of expenditure in excess of budget provisions.
The assessed sales ranged from 34 to, 57 per cent of the total sales during 2006-11.
Performance audit revealed the efforts made by the Department to provide access to electricity for all households were inadequate. The performance audit contains four recommendations aimed at improving the operational efficiency of the Department.
Supply of electricity at reasonable rate to rural India is essential for its overall development. Equally important is availability of reliable and quality power at competitive rates to Indian industry to make it globally competitive and to enable it to exploit the tremendous potential of employment generation.
The Electricity Department, Manipur (Department) being an integrated utility is responsible for distribution and trading functions of electricity in the State. Principal Secretary (Power) is the overall in charge of the Department. Chief Engineer (Power) is the Head of the Department.
During 2006-07, 227.44 MUs of energy was sold by the Department which increased to 381.58 MUs (an increase of 61.11 per cent) during 2006-11. As on 31 March 2011, the State had distribution network of 7685 CKM, 46 substations and 3732 transformers of various categories. The number of consumers was 1,93,661 and the turnover of the Department was Rs 109.67 crore in 2010-11, which was equal to 1.26 per cent of State Gross Domestic Product (2009-10: Rs 8687 crore). It employed 3,190 employees as on 31 March 2011.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/381-58-mus-sold-by-power-department-cag/
