Dehradun, May 17
It is a tough time ahead for Uttarakhand as it tries to meet its power demands as the summer reaches its peak period in the state.

Uttarkhand presently has a total power availability to the tune of 21 million units per day while the demand goes as high as 23.5 million units, thus putting the state short by 2.5 million units every day.

The regular supply of power was somehow maintained in the state during elections. But with the elections over, the power woes are expected to start for the residents.

The state, during the polls, had purchased power at a high cost putting a mammoth burden of Rs 100 crore on the exchequer.

This power was purchased from the Central Sector, Delhi, and West Bengal. But now the state is finding it difficult to maintain this power supply.

Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited MD Jagmohan Lal admitted that it would
now be tough to maintain a constant supply of power as there was a persistent
demand from Delhi to return the power that the state had taken from Delhi during
the past one month.

“We had taken as many as 160 million units of power from Delhi and now the capital is forcing us to return it,” Jagmohan Lal said.

He said there was no other option left with Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited but to go for rotational power cuts. “Rotational power cuts cannot be avoided under any circumstances,” he added.

The department has come up with a schedule to enforce power cuts. Most of these has been restricted to day hours as far as domestic customers are concerned.

“We have decided against power cuts from 7 pm to 5 am on domestic load and have asked furnace and rolling mills owners to keep their shops shut after 6 pm.

“While two to three-hour cuts will be implemented in towns, it will be more for rural areas. For Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar, cuts could be around 5 to 6 hours,” Jagmohan Lal said

The increasing gap between demand and supply has been a major cause of worry. With temperatures up, more troubled times are ahead for the people of the state.

In mid-April, Uttarakhand was generating as much as 7 million units of power per day while the demand was as high as 22 to 23 million units.

The state got 4 to 5 million units of power as its share from the Centre while another 1 to 1.5 million units were borrowed from Delhi.

Even after all this, Uttarakhand faced a shortage of 4 to 5 million units and this shortage still continues.

But the state government could ill afford to go for power cuts at that time due to the polls and thus was somehow maintaining the power supply by purchasing power at a rate of Rs 8 to Rs 10 per unit.

But with the polls now over, the state will be least interested in purchasing power at such exorbitant rates.

While rotational power cuts are a foregone conclusion, the people of the state are already feeling the pinch.

Residents of various areas in the Garhwal division experienced the first day of power cuts on Saturday.

Rishikesh introduced power cut for half an hour. Similar power cuts were experienced in parts of Dehradun.

The most challenging part has been the fact that the rivers of the state are yet to witness a rise in water levels, which is expected during summers, as this could have led to rise in power generation.

But such a respite does not appear to be in sight. The state had witnessed little snowfall during winter.

This has also led to a delay in the increase of water levels in rivers in the state.

Frequent power cuts will also affect the potable water supply in the region. The Jal Sansthan is greatly dependent on power supply to ensure regular supply.

“Long power cuts affect the potable water supply in a big way as most of our supply is through tubewells and we have almost no alternative arrangement,” said BK Sethi, Executive Engineer, Jal Sansthan.

Dehradun, May 17
The seventh National Theatre Festival organised by ‘Doon Ghati Rangmanch’ began on a promising note with cultural and theatre teams from 11 states putting up a spectacular performance on the first day.

In all, there were 12 folk solo performances and three group dances in which schoolgirls from Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa took part.

Seven-year-old Amruta Patnaik from Cuttack, Orissa, performed on the song ‘Mere Dholna’ from ‘Bhool Bhulaiya’.

She enthralled the audience with her deft dance movements. This was followed by Sambalpuri dance depicting the tribal culture of Orissa.

A semi-classical solo dance by Aruna Mishra from Uttar Pradesh and Payal from Gujarat were the other attractions.

The audience also got a peek at the diversity of Assam when two cultural troupes hailing from Nalabari - BDP Cultural Association and Nritya Kala Kendra - along with soloist Sumitra Hazarika gave their performance.

‘Bhotal Nritya’ in which local deities are invoked and ‘Radha Krishan Nritya’ in classical and folk form were the other highlights.

The ‘Bhotal Nritya’ artistes caught the attention of the audience by the unique combination of their dresses and eye-catching headgear worn by girls.

In the evening, two plays titled ‘Kafan’ by Doon Ghati Rang Manch and ‘Eeh Mati Hamari Hai’ were staged.

The organisation will be conferring ‘Natya Ratan’ on MC Vishwakarma, who is associated with ‘Mughal Sarai Manch’ on the last day of the festival.

A total of 540 artistes from 15 states are expected to participate in the festival.

Dehradun, May 17
A book on environmental degradation was released yesterday by Dev Lahiri, principal, Welham Boys School, at the school’s activity centre.

The book titled ‘Good Earth Keeping’ has been authored by Surjeet Singh Khaira and published by New Delhi-based publishers BookWell.

Khaira teaches geography at Welham Boys School and is also attached with ‘The Friends of Doon’, a local NGO where he is the chief project leader of Trees for the Doon (TFD), a project of urban greening. He has authored several books on geography, nature and trees.

“Worried about the degradation of the environment, I thought it will be a good idea to come up with a book that appeals to the young and old alike. Most tips given in the book won’t take more than a few minutes to read. I believe that people should adopt proactive measures to save the environment,” said Surjeet Singh Khaira.

The author has sought suggestions from readers and all persons concerned directly or indirectly with environmental issues that could be incorporated in future editions.