The Electricity Department has extended the deadline for the linking of consumer numbers with Aadhaar numbers, until February 15. The extension comes in the wake of the earlier deadline of January 31.
Electricity Minister V. Senthil Balaji, announcing the extension of the deadline at a press meet held in Chennai on Tuesday, said that this would be the last extension, as only 9% of consumers are yet to link their details, and there would not be any further extension beyond these 15 days.
Mr. Balaji, talking to press persons after conducting a high-level meeting with senior electricity officials, said of the total of 2.67 crore electricity consumers comprising domestic, huts, agricultural, and handloom and powerloom weavers, 2.42 crore consumers have linked their Aadhaar details with their consumer numbers. This works out to 90.69%, he said.
Backlog in linking details of hut connections
Giving a break-up of the various categories of consumers who have linked their Aadhaar details with their consumer numbers, the Minister said in the domestic category only 15 lakh connections are yet to be linked as 2.17 crore domestic consumers have added their Aadhaar details.
Similarly, 18.28 lakh consumers with agricultural connections have linked their details, while 5 lakh are yet to do so. In the powerloom category 11,000 connections need to be linked of the total of 1.63 lakh connections and 4,000 connections are yet to be linked in the handlooms sector, of the total 74,000 connections.
Mr. Balaji said the biggest backlog was in the linking of Aadhaar details with consumer numbers of those with hut connections: only 5.11 lakh consumers have updated their details, of the total of 9.44 lakh connections.
The Electricity Minister said during the discussion carried out with the officials with regard to provisions made for linking Aadhaar details of tenants, it was found that some families with individual properties having taken one electricity connection, may have be living separately, and so, a there are plans to set up a provision where one can link multiple Aadhaar details with a single electricity connection.
Mr. Balaji congratulated the officials of Tangedco (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation) for this good work
Tangedco Chairman and Managing Director Rajesh Lakhoni also participated.
