11/01/2026
Public anger boils as JPDCL resorts to 6-hour power cuts
Recorded message, no direct access to Chief Engineer
MLAs to vociferously raise issue in Board meeting, Assembly
=> Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) has enforced six-hour-long power curtailments during the peak winter, triggering public outrage and renewed questions over accountability, planning and power sector reforms. Moreover, areas claimed to be 100 per cent smart-metered have also been subjected to the cuts, thereby contradicting repeated Government assurances of uninterrupted 24×7 power supply.
In urban areas of Jammu, the JPDCL has, over the past few days, begun enforcing six-hour-long power curtailments spread across different time slots from morning till evening. The prolonged and unpredictable outages have severely disrupted daily life, particularly during the peak winter period when electricity is essential.
The situation is even more severe in rural areas, where residents are facing power cuts lasting seven to eight hours daily. Villages on the outskirts of Jammu complain that electricity supply remains erratic and uncertain, leaving families to endure long hours without heating or lighting.
Most shockingly, even areas declared 100 per cent smart-metered have not been spared from the curtailment schedule. These localities were assured uninterrupted power supply under the smart-metering programme, which was projected as a major reform to improve reliability and efficiency. Instead, consumers in these areas are facing the same outages as others, leading to widespread resentment.
“The Government installed smart meters as a guarantee of 24×7 power supply. Today, we are facing the same cuts as everyone else. What was the point of these reforms?” questioned a number of residents of smart-metered areas.
When approached for clarification, lower- and middle-level officers of JPDCL attributed the power curtailment to increased Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, claiming that demand has surged during winter while revenue recovery has not kept pace.
However, penalising consumers especially those who pay their bills regularly amounts to administrative failure rather than a solution, official sources said.
Chief Engineer of JPDCL, Arshad Reshi, failed to respond to repeated telephonic calls seeking an official response. More troublingly, callers were met with a pre-recorded automated message on his phone that demanded the caller’s identity and reason for calling before disconnecting automatically.
“The use of such a mechanism by a senior officer of a public utility department during a period of distress has raised serious questions about transparency, accountability and accessibility,” a number of consumers, who also made several attempts to contact the Chief Engineer, told EXCELSIOR , adding, “when essential services like electricity collapse during winter, senior officials must be accessible to the public rather than insulated behind automated systems”.
BJP MLA from Jammu North, Sham Lal Sharma, while expressing serious concern over such long power cuts in urban as well as rural areas, said, “instead of fulfilling the promise of providing 24×7 uninterrupted power supply, the Government is harassing the people by resorting to curtailments.”
“Inflated bills coupled with unscheduled and prolonged power cuts have badly affected the people. Bringing down the losses is the domain of JPDCL and for the slackness of the Corporation, the public-particularly those paying the bills honestly and on time-should not be subjected to inconvenience,” he further said, while disclosing that he will vociferously raise the issue during the Jammu District Development Board meeting as well as in the forthcoming session of the Legislative Assembly.
Similarly, MLA from Jammu West, Arvind Gupta, said, “I have received numerous complaints from the people of my constituency regarding prolonged curtailments. This is totally unacceptable when people are honestly paying their bills. As far as AT&C losses are concerned, the JPDCL is supposed to reduce the same by taking all possible steps.”
