APDCL needs to win people’s trust: CM

GUWAHATI, July 7: “APDCL needs to win people’s trust by delivering exemplary service. All officials of APDCL must commit to provide 24x7 power supply to the public,” said Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal while speaking at an interaction programme with the Managing Director and Sub-Divisional Officers (SDOs) of Assam Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (APDCL) at Assam Administrative Staff College on Saturday, a government communiqué said.

Directing the APDCL officials to work on war-footing for achieving the “Saubhagya” scheme’s target of providing power connection to 23 lakh families in rural areas of the state within December 31, Sonowal said that APDCL must strive to provide power connections to 13,000 families daily in the next five months to cover the remaining 19.5 lakh families under Saubhagya. Notably, till now 3.5 lakh families have been provided power connection in the state under the scheme.

During the interaction, Sonowal announced that SDOs performing efficiently would be awarded by the government at the state level. “Staying close to the people would encourage them to have sense of ownership over the properties of APDCL and people must cooperate with APDCL in reducing the incidents of power theft using illegal hooks. Public relation activity must be taken up by APDCL with renewed vigour,” Sonowal said. He also directed APDCL to remove all bamboo and wooden poles installed by the previous government for minimizing accidents.

Minister of State for Power Tapan Kumar Gogoi, while speaking on the occasion said that APDCL has an important responsibility in realizing Prime Minister Modi’s vision of providing constant power supply 24 hours a day by 2019. He also informed that the initiative of the state government to provide 4 LED bulbs to 52 lakh families would be started within this month and Anganwadi Centres, hospitals, schools etc would also be provided LED bulbs soon. Along with Chairman of APDCL Jishnu Barua, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohia, MD APDCL Puru Gupta and other top officials of the APDCL also attended the programme, the communiqué added.