UDA seeks extension of JKPDD Amnesty Scheme

Jammu: United Democratic Alliance (UDA) on Monday criticized the callous attitude of the J&K Power Development Department for not extending JKPDD Amnesty Scheme for domestic electricity consumers of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory. In a statement issued here today, Rajiv Mahajan, Spokesperson of UDA, said that the Amnesty Scheme was announced by the Power development department (PDD) in 2020 to curb the power theft in the erstwhile J&K State.“Unfortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak has spread across the globe as well to the UT of J&K. The pandemic has caused mass disruptions to the nation’s economy, its trade, industry, and the lives of citizens. There is no industry or sector of the economy that has been left unaffected by this wave,” he said.

Mahajan asserted that people of all sections of the society having been economically hit due to the corona pandemic and the government should show compassion and provide special succor particularly to the financially distressed poor and marginalized sections of the society.“The laborers, farmers, small traders, self-employed, taxi transport, and auto operators, Rehri and Phari owners have been worst affected due to lengthy lockdown and no source of earnings during the last more than three months. With the poor sections having exhausted all their savings, they are finding it hard to make both ends meet while at the same time having to pay various kinds of cesses and tariffs,” Mahajan said.

Mahajan said that it’s not possible for the people to clear their payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He mentioned that traders, contractors as well as suppliers who payments to the tune of crore of rupees are pending in various government departments. He said the government should first clear liabilities of traders, contractors as well as suppliers then it should talk about the amnesty scheme. Mahajan appealed to the Lt Governor Girish Chandra Murmu to extend the Amnesty Scheme before June 30 till the COVID-19 pandemic end, adding that such a generous approach of the government would only go in line with the pious obligations of a truly people-friendly government in a welfare state.

Pertinent to mention here that the last date of depositing the first installment of the JKPDD Amnesty Scheme was extended up to June 30, 2020. The signatories to the statement included Lt Gen (Retd.) Pradeep Singh Mehta, Principal Advisor, Munish Sahni, Convener, IG (Retd) Sudhir Dogra, General Secretary, Co-Conveners Col. (Retd.) S.S Pathania, Krishan Manhas, Satish Ponshi, Vikrant Kapoor, Kulbir Singh Slathia, Bharat Bhushan Gupta, Gajan Singh Khajuria, Rajinder Gupta, Rajeev Luthra, DiG (Retd.) Manmohan Singh, Prem Sharma, Vivek Wazir, Rakesh Badyal, Pawan Gupta, Sanjay Jandyal, Varnider Singh Billawria, Yash Khajuria, Col. (Retd.) P.S Jamwal and Jaswinder Singh (Kuku).