BJP slams power cuts announced by Odisha govt

Slamming as "irresponsible and outrageous" power cut announced by Odisha Government, BJP today demanded immediate rollback of the decision and asked the BJD regime to meet the energy shortfall by drawing electricity from private producers in the state.
"State Government's announcement of power cut till June next year was an irresponsible act and outrageous as it has triggered panic among people," senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra told reporters here.
Hitting out at state Energy minister Pranab Prakash Das for announcing that load shedding is likely to continue till June next year, he said it was sheer irresponsibility as no contingency plan was made to meet shortage of 500-700 MW of electricity daily due to fall in hydro-power generation.

Terming the power crisis as "man made", Mohapatra said the situation did not crop up all of a sudden and Government was well aware of deficient rainfall and drop in water level in reservoirs but failed to draw any plan to tackle it.
Stating that load shedding had already been started much before the state government made the announcement, the BJP stalwart said instead of trying to hurt and harass the people for nearly a year by imposing power cut, government should draw power from private producers in the state.
State Government should also try to get electricity from captive power plants (CPP) of various companies, he said in order to meet the emergency situation, the government can easily manage to arrange 500 to 700 mw from these sources for ensuring uninterrupted electricity to consumers.

Accusing the Naveen Patnaik Government of trying to benefit private companies by not asking them to provide power to deal with the crisis, the BJP leader said the power cut decision must be withdrawn forthwith to save the people from hardship.

Ridiculing the state government for having painted a rosy picture by claiming a few years ago that the state would be made power surplus by 2015, he sought to know about the fate of 30 odd MoUs signed with private companies for establishment of independent power plants (IPPs) since 2006.
The state BJP also expressed grave concern over drought like conditions in the state caused by scanty rainfall and accused the BJD government of making no effort to deal with the situation.

"We demand the state government to take immediate step to review the alarming situation and send officials to affected districts for making field assessment," BJP state unit president K V Singhdeo said.