Dimapur became the first town in Nagaland to have the power department’s first pilot project of prepaid meters at Marwari Patti, Saturday.
The pre-paid meter was officially launched by parliamentary secretary power Kipili C. Sangtam after it was set up at the residence of late Mangilal a prominent businessman.
Addressing department officials and business community, Kipili termed it as a “historic day” but also lamented that even as Nagaland entered its fiftieth year, it could not streamline collection of revenue.
Kipili said he was however confident that with the cooperation of all sectors, officials and staff of the department, the state government would be able to introduce more such pilot projects.
He disclosed that such projects would be implemented in an “extensive way” if the pilot project proved successful and hoped the prepaid meter-pilot project would help “discipline” consumers in paying electricity bills.
Kipili admitted that the department faced shortage of manpower and pointed out that 400 villages were without work-charged “jugalis”.
He called for support from people in addressing the handicap. Chairing the programme, commissioner and secretary (power) L Kire admitted that the department has been grappling with the gap between revenue collection and expenditure for quite some time now.
He hoped that the prepaid meters would address these problems to some extent and appreciated the Marwari community for their support and cooperation.
Er.K.Yiese gave a brief introduction of electricity prepaid system which enabled the consumer to have control over their expenditure.
He said the meter could be recharged with a unique smartcard. The consumer can recharge the meter by holding the recharged card in front of a space provided in the meter and get it automatically recharged.
Er. Yiese also informed that the department would be providing “friendly credit days and friendly credit hours” i.e. on all national holidays and Sundays wherein even if the meter was out of balance, the power supply would not be disconnected between 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Earlier, senior vice president Jain Samaj Dimapur, Om Prakash Sethi also spoke on behalf of the Marwari community. The closing remark was given by additional chief engineer (D&R) power, Er. Imlikumzuk Ao.
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