The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) launched the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) to increase the load of agricultural power connections in rural areas and the Ludhiana Central Zone.
Teams collected 47,40,745 as service connection charge and initial security in two days — Saturday and Sunday — after consumers declared a total load of 1750.45 BHP. Numerous VDS camps were held in a total of 77 villages, with 496 consumers taking advantage of the scheme.
Following the instructions of state power minister Harbhajan Singh, the camps were organized by multiple divisions of Ludhiana in its East, West, Sub-Urban, and Khanna circles.
Discussing the scheme, Ludhiana Central Zone chief engineer Parvinder Singh Khamba said it would be highly beneficial for agriculture power consumers because they would be able to increase their load without incurring any penalties, adding that the fee for increasing the load had also been reduced from 4,750 per bhp to 2,500 per bhp.
"Consumers sometimes install larger motors to water their fields than the permissible load, causing transformer overloading and, ultimately, machinery breakage and financial loss to the electricity department." "This is a genuine opportunity for such customers to have their loads increased without penalty," he explained.
In the East circle, three camps were held, two in Sundar Nagar and one in the Focal Point division, with 64 consumers taking advantage of the scheme and declaring a total load of 222.85 bhp. As a service connection charge and initial security deposit, a total of $6,00,525 was collected.
The west circle, on the other hand, saw only six camps, two each in the Aggar Nagar and Estate divisions, and one each in the City West and Model Town divisions. A total of 31 customers declared a total load of 111.1 bhp, for which $2,99,150 was collected.
