Collective effort needed to tackle loss incurred from Power, says Nagaland Chief Minister

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Feb. 16 (EMN): Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is also the minister in-charge of Power, said that it is unable to make profit on the resale of power despite the huge improvement in power supply condition in the state and Nagaland being the first state in the Northeast to reach 100% of all recognised villages.

These losses, he said, was mainly due to wide spread consumers across all strata of society, high level of rural distribution, tendency of the consumers not to pay electricity bills for their actual consumption etc.

The department is taking up various initiatives like introduction of online payment of electricity bills, installation of prepaid meters, engagement of anti-power theft police squad etc. but the challenges are very huge and it requires collective effort of both the department and society to tackle the matter together, he said.

The chief minister was replying to a starred question raised by MLA Amenba Yaden on units of power in the state.

Total units of power purchased by the state annually for the last five years stands at:

2016-17: 805.67 MU

2017-18: 794.68 MU

2018-19: 837.86 MU

2019-20: 869.22 MU

2020-21: 662.37 MU (till December 2020).

Total units of power received free of cost annually from Doyang Hydro Electric Project owned by Neepco:

2016-17: 29.62 MU

2017-18: 31.19 MU

2018-19: 26.33 MU

2019-20: 20.64 MU

2020-21: 20.65 MU (till December 2020).