The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

LETTERS

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Power crisis looms as Andhra simmers
Suresh Dharur/TNS

Hyderabad, October 7
The anti-bifurcation agitation continued to disrupt normal life in Andhra Pradesh, with several cities and towns in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions going without electricity following strike by employees of power utilities.

The power generation at major units in Vijayawada, Kadapa and Srisailam came to a virtual standstill following strike by over 50,000 employees in the Seemandhra region.

Only 2,990 MW of thermal power was produced as against the installed capacity of 6,090 MW on Sunday.

Power from the hydel generation stood at 1,694 MW against the installed capacity of 3,937 MW. Several gas-based power plants are also not functioning due to gas shortage problems.

The generation loss crossed a whopping 4,350 MW since last night, plunging vast swathes of Seemandhra into darkness. From today, an additional 280 MW would not be generated as a fallout of the strike, official sources said.

Scores of sub-stations were manually shut down by agitating power department employees.

Major units shut

Power generation at major units in Vijayawada, Kadapa and Srisailam comes to a virtual standstill
Power from hydel generation stands at 1,694 MW against the installed capacity of 3,937 MW

4 Union ministers quit
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, October 7
Four Central ministers from the Seemandhra region formally quit from the ministry at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whom they pressed for the acceptance of their resignations.

The PM is said to be considering the resignations with the Congress even now maintaining that the Ministers would not go.

HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju, Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi, Textiles Minister KS Rao, MoS Industry D Purandeshwari, MoS Railways Kotla Jaysuryaprakash Reddy and MoS IT Killi Krupa Rani met the PM to persuade him to accept their resignations in protest of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Four of these - Pallam Raju, Chiranjeevi, Purandeshwari and Reddy - later said they had re-tendered their resignations to the PM to “clear the air around their intentions and gather the moral authority to return to Hyderabad and face agitators”. “We told the PM that our resignations must be accepted so we can return to the state and talk to people as one of them. Unless we resign, we won’t have the credibility to go back. It’s sad that till today no one has gone to talk to the angry people not even the Antony committee,” Purandeshwari said.

The four ministers had earlier faxed their resignations to the PM but the same had not been accepted. HRD Minister Pallam Raju in an exclusive conversation with The Tribune today said it had become essential for Seemandhra ministers to meet the PM and again resign because their act was being mocked as “posturing”.