Kashmir’s revised power curtailment schedule is being presented as an administrative response to rising demand and limited availability. But behind the language of feeder categories, metering status and AT&C losses lies a more uncomfortable reality: the Valley’s rural population is once again being asked to pay for the failures of the power distribution system. Under the new plan, several rural areas will face six to eight hours of daily power cuts, while Srinagar city will experience curtailment ranging from half an hour to three hours. The official explanation is straightforward: feeders with higher losses will receive longer cuts. Yet this logic, if applied without accountability, risks turning electricity deprivation into a punishment for consumers rather than a corrective measure against systemic inefficiency. High AT&C losses are not caused by ordinary consumers alone. They reflect a combination of power theft, faulty metering, weak billing, poor collection, technical losses, overloaded infrastructure and administrative failure. When a feeder records losses above 65 per cent, the first question should not be how long its consumers can be left without electricity. It should be who allowed such losses to persist, which officials were held responsible and what measurable action has been taken to correct the situation. The government’s earlier direction to act against divisions and feeders reporting losses above 40 per cent, including salary deductions of up to 50 per cent, is significant. But punitive orders on paper cannot substitute for transparent enforcement. Consumers deserve to know whether responsibility has actually been fixed, whether power theft networks have been dismantled and whether billing and collection systems have improved. The expansion of round-the-clock supply from 129 to 214 feeders is welcome, particularly for hospitals, water supply schemes, emergency services and productive sectors. The decision to protect essential services and industrial estates is also understandable. However, uninterrupted power for selected feeders cannot become a basis for deepening the rural-urban divide. Villages cannot remain the shock absorbers of every seasonal shortage and institutional failure. A feeder-wise schedule may bring some order to curtailment, but it cannot make prolonged outages acceptable. Six to eight hours without electricity disrupts education, healthcare, small businesses, irrigation, domestic work and rural livelihoods. In winter, it is not merely an inconvenience; it can become a question of safety and dignity. KPDCL must therefore publish feeder-wise performance data, theft-control results, collection improvements and timelines for reducing losses. Curtailment should be treated as a temporary emergency measure, not a substitute for reform. Kashmir needs a power policy that rewards efficiency without abandoning vulnerable consumers—and accountability that reaches the system, not just the switchboard.
