Thaindian News

Mumbai, Oct 11 (IANS) Maharashtra’s opposition parties Tuesday slammed the government for the ongoing severe power crisis in the state, coming as it does barely a fortnight before the festival of lights, Diwali.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded that the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government should initiate measures on a war-footing to slash load-shedding before Diwali this year turns dark for the people.

“The monsoons have barely receded and the state is experiencing the terrible October heat. People would come to the streets…. and for this the government would be responsible,” the party’s state unit spokesman Madhav Bhandari warned.

Echoing similar sentiments, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has questioned whether the state government would be able to achieve its much-touted target of making Maharashtra “load-shedding free” by 2012.

“The government must realise the gravity of the matter and understand why we have reached this kind of a situation,” said MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar, a former Maharashtra minister.

Both pointed out that the unprecedented load-shedding ranging from three to seven hours in urban centres and 11 to 13 hours in rural areas, besides 16 hours for industries from Wednesday, has brought misery to the people and angered them.

Referring to the anti-load shedding agitations in various parts of the state, Bhandari said the police caned the protestors in Thane but power supply remained erratic.

“It is only because of the policies of the government that we are facing this situation ahead of Diwali. We are pushing the state backwards, whereas the neighbouring state Gujarat has surplus power,” said BJP leader Ashish Shelar, who is also a member of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

Stung by the developments over the past few days, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan Tuesday took stock of the power situation in the state and is expected to discuss the issue with top officials here Wednesday.

A meeting of elected representatives, district officials, and electricity board officials in Aurangabad called to discuss the power crisis, degenerated into a heated slanging match.

One of the elected legislators used abusive language against the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) officials, holding them responsible for the current power crisis, to which the officials strongly protested.

Power generation in the state has been hit severely by severe disruptions in coal supply due to the ongoing Telangana agitation in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and floods in Orissa.

In Andhra Pradesh, the state-run Singareni Collieries’ employees have joined the mass agitation for separate Telanagana, drastically curtailing coal supplies.

This has resulted in Maharashtra power stations getting only around 12 rakes (trainloads) of coal against their daily requirements of 24 rakes.

The present demand for electricity in the state is around 16,500 MW but the power generation is around 11,000 MW, necessitating load-shedding.

The coal shortage has hit MAHAGENCO major thermal power generation plants in Parli (Beed) in Marathwada region; Chandrapur, Koradi, Khaparkheda, Paras - all in eastern Maharashtra; Nashik and Bhusawal in the northern parts of the state; and Uran in Thane, besides smaller ones across the state.