J&K Govt Admits Power Cuts “Unavoidable,” Blames Grid Constraints

Suhail Khan

Jammu, Feb 04: The Jammu and Kashmir administration told the legislative assembly on Wednesday that prolonged and unscheduled power cuts across the Union Territory are “unavoidable,” citing severe grid constraints and offering no timeline for restoring reliable electricity to citizens.

Responding to questions from MLA Pirzada Farooq Ahmad Shah on the worsening crisis in the Gulmarg constituency, the government presented a contradictory stance—first claiming adherence to an official curtailment schedule, then immediately undercutting that claim by confessing to routine breakdowns.

Officially, the administration stated—as per Kashmir Convener that power is supplied “strictly as per the curtailment schedule.” However, in the same breath, it conceded that “due to system constraints… the power supply occasionally gets affected beyond the curtailment schedule.”

This amounts to an official confirmation that the government’s own power roster is being violated not by public demand, but by infrastructural collapse at the grid level—a direct indictment of its failure to upgrade transmission and distribution systems.

When questioned about providing uninterrupted 24×7 electricity, the administration pointedly avoided setting any deadline. It stated that round-the-clock supply is possible only after “feeder saturation with LT cabling and smart metering” under the centrally-funded Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)—a project that has faced stiff public resistance in several areas.

The completion of this contentious smart metering drive is now effectively the sole precondition for reliable power, with the administration vaguely claiming it will be completed “very soon.”

The reply comes amid intense public anger over severe electricity shortages this winter, with reports of outages stretching between 14 to 18 hours daily—far exceeding official schedules.

Notably, the administration has now officially shifted blame from alleged “public violations” to its own “grid-level distress,” confirming that residents must wait indefinitely for cabling and smart meter projects to finish before expecting steady electricity—with no accountability for the timeline or the continued suffering of citizens.