CM Parkash Singh Badal inaugurates the Vikas Bhawan in Sector 62, Mohali on Sunday.To generate revenue and to make village panchayats self-sustaining and financially viable,Punjab government is exploring the option of renting out shops on panchayat land where commercial activity is viable.

CM Parkash Singh Badal said this on Sunday while addressing at the inauguration ceremony of Vikas Bhawan in Sector 62, Mohali.

Pointing out that the newly-constructed complex would house all offices of the department located at various places in Chandigarh and Mohali, Badal said this would help officers increase efficiency in day-to-day functioning, and save people time, energy and money.

He also called upon farmers, especially small and marginal ones, to cut wasteful expenditure on buying costly agricultural machinery and tractors by taking loans at high rate of interest which is unproductive and unviable.

Instead of taking loans, he advised farmers to make optimum use of agro-centres scheme aimed at providing all agricultural implements and equipment, including laser levellers and zero-tilling machines, at nominal rent. He urged the cooperative societies to come forward to run these centres as government was giving 30% subsidy on the purchase of equipment and machinery besides raising 70% amount through loans on easy interest.

Speaking on the occasion, rural development and panchayats minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura said that Vikas Bhawan and State Institute of Rural Development would prove to be a milestone for the overall progress of the rural sector in Punjab.

The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has set up an ambitious target to reduce the T&D (transmission & distribution) losses to 17 per cent by 2011-12.

To achieve the designated target, the board has drawn a roadmap, which includes revamp of transmission lines, IT implementation, theft detection by enforcement agencies, installation of electronic meters etc.

It is worth noting that the board has projected T&D losses at 19.5 per cent for 2009-10 that represents a reduction of 3.03 per cent losses from 22.53 per cent in 2007-08 and 1.5 per cent from the level of 21 per cent for 2008-09.

These losses for the year 2007-08, 2008-09 and projections for 2009-10 are — 10,030 MU (million units), 9,766 MU and 11,699 MU respectively.As projected by the board, for 2009-10, the state has total energy requirement of 44, 105 MU which includes 8,287 MU as T&D losses.

Sources added that in order to bring in T&D losses in the coming years, the board has indicated some step it intends to take care in this fiscal year, which include, strengthening of distribution system, 100 per cent replacement of electro-mechanical meters by more accurate electronic meters, providing effective earthing at all the sub-station and distribution transformers, installation of meters outside the premises, augmentation of over-loaded feeders and deloading of distribution transformers etc.

Considering the board’s need to make substantial investment in transmission and distribution network for providing uninterrupted and reliable power supply to the consumers, the regulatory authority of the board, Punjab State Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has allowed an investment plan of Rs 2,000 crore for 2009-10.

Earlier, the state electricity regulatory commission had in Tariff Order 2004-05, fixed T&D loss of the board as 23.25 per cent and also fixed a trajectory of loss reduction for the next three years.

However, the board has not been able to achieve the T&D loss reduction targets as prescribed by the commission.

In fact, the commission was to redetermine the reduction trajectory of T&D losses beyond 2007-08 but had to retain a normative level of 19.5 per cent in 2008-09 as the board had failed to reach even close to that target by the end of 2007-08.