Power demand up, Haryana reels under cuts

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 13

With a substantial rise in demand for power, electricity cuts, ranging from three to five hours, are being witnessed across Haryana.

Faridabad, with an average of a five-hour power cut daily, has been reeling under a shortage of over 20 per cent, according to officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). Though the daily demand is claimed to be around 1,010 MW, the Faridabad circle is getting a supply of up to 805 MW.

The Power Department has resorted to power cuts for the industrial sector in the region to cope up with the short supply in the residential or domestic sector.

Arrangements in place

Though arrangements for getting power from the private plants have been made, the demand still has surged due to the early onset of summer and a rise in the demand from the agriculture sector. —A Faridabad official

Similar is the situation in Yamunanagar. The power cuts are making it difficult for students to prepare for board exams of Class X and XII. “Besides the preparation of board exams, I am preparing for a law course admission test. It is difficult for us to study online due to power cuts,” said Chetan, a student of Class XII.

Satpal Kaushik, a leader of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha, said that the BJP-JJP government should issue a white paper and tell the people of the state why there was a power crisis in Haryana. He said the power crisis had adversely affected the farmers as their crops were drying up due to the non-availability of power.

In Jhajjar, power cuts for more than three hours in the city and for over four hours in villages were being imposed. “The consumption has reached up to 10 lakh units per day in Jhajjar city, while the figure was seven lakh units in April last year,” said Pradeep Kumar, Executive Engineer, Rohtak, adding that the power cuts were being imposed at night.

Hisar is witnessing cuts for eight to nine hours a day. A resident of Navdeep Colony, Pratap Singh, said besides the three scheduled cuts, there were many unscheduled cuts in their locality. “With the temperature soaring over 40 degrees Celsius, it is becoming intolerable without electricity,” he said. Power Minister Ranjit Singh, during his visits to Hisar and Bhiwani earlier this week, had admitted a sudden jump in the power load due to the early onset of summer.

Meanwhile, Ambala Superintending Engineer VK Barnwal said, “The daily consumption of power has touched around 50 lakh units and it will further increase in the coming days. Currently, the power cuts of around two hours are being imposed, but the situation is expected to improve from today onwards.”

Karnal district is facing a shortage of around 50MW electricity daily. “The requirement is around 350 MW daily, while the supply is 300 MW,” said Sudhakar Tiwari, Superintending Engineer (SE), UHBVN, Karnal circle. He maintained that last year during this time, the demand was 200 MW. During night time, the demand is higher than the day time, the Superintending Engineer added.

Rajiv Kumar, a farmer from Ambala, said, “Against the power supply of around eight hours, the farmers are hardly getting supply for two hours. The farmers haven’t been able to irrigate the fields due to irregular power supply.”

Deepender Hooda blames govt for crisis

Jhajjar: Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda expressed concern over the power shortage across the state and blamed the state government for the situation. “The previous Congress government had set up thermal power plants in Khedar (Hisar), Jharli, Khanpur (Jhajjar) and Yamunanagar to generate much more electricity than the demand. It is unfortunate that Khattar’s government has not yet established a single power plant in the state leading to acute power crisis in the state,” said the MP.

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