Peak power demand touches new high
State records highest-ever peak load of 13,252 MW in Jan.
The peak power demand in Telangana state has touched a new high even before the onset of summer.
The state recorded the highest-ever peak load of
13,252 MW on January 30. On Monday, February 15, the peak demand has crossed the 13,000 MW mark yet again, recording
13,062 MW. The power consumption was 242.629 million units.
With temperatures soaring and agriculture power demand rising in the past few days, the demand for power has gone up drastically. At this rate, officials expect power demand to set new records by peak summer in May, when domestic power consumption also increases significantly.
The increase in the extent of cultivation in the ongoing rabi season contributed to higher power consumption. As the state government provides 24x7 free power to agriculture, farmers are utilising the scheme to the maximum extent. Rabi crops are heavily dependent on borewells. The supply from irrigation projects will be to the minimum in yasangi season as water levels in projects will be lower during the summer season.
Notably, power consumption has increased manifold in Telangana after the formation of state in June
2014. The highest peak power demand of Undivided Andhra Pradesh was
13,162 MW which was recorded on March 23, 2014.
After bifurcation of AP in June 2014, Telangana state broke this record and surpassed united Andhra Pradesh's peak power demand within six years of its formation on February
28, 2020 by recording 13,168 MW. At the time of formation of Telangana state, the highest demand for power was just 5,661 MW, which has now crossed the 13,000 MW mark. Telangana crossed the 13,000 MW mark for the first time on February 25, 2020, when it clocked 13,040 MW.
Before formation of the state, the farm sector used to get four to five hours of free power supply. The TRS government later extended this to nine hours. From January 1, 2018, the government is extending 24hour free power supply. Prior to the Telangana state formation, demand from the farm sector was about 2,000 MWs. But, with the launch of lift Irrigation schemes like the mega Kaleshwaram, the demand has shot up to 6,000 MWs. The total connections in the farm sector, which were about 19.02 lakh in
2014, has grown to 24.31 lakh now. The number of power connections in the state has gone up from 1.11 crore in 2014 to 1.54 crore in 2019.s
Terming Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao “a villain”, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Bhatti Vikramarka said that the former has grabbed lands from Dalits in Telangana. He said that Chief Minister Rao has been grabbing every right from Indiramma houses to tribal lands, which were given by the erstwhile Congress government.
Speaking during the Raithulatho Mukha-mukhi (face to face with farmers) programme in the Gangapur village of Jedcherla constituency, Mr Bhatti demanded immediate relief and rehabilitation package for the villagers of Uddampur. He said that compensation should be paid only as per
the Land
2013.
The CLP leader asked the government to also give land in exchange for land, and a house in exchange for house, and twice the size of lands taken from Dalits and tribals, who have lost their properties
Acquisition
Act, owing to acquisition to enable the construction of the Udhampur reservoir. He said that if compensation was paid in cash, the state government should pay three times the current market value.
The Congress leader questioned why the government had taken up a survey without intimating villagers. “When questioned by farmers about the survey, police have been handing out threats to farmers, which must be condemned and stopped,” the senior Congress leader said.
He asked the Chief Minister to keep his promises made in the Udhampur public meeting. Mr Bhatti said that if required the CLP leaders will meet Chief Minister Rao on behalf of the farmers.
Telangana government on Tuesday questioned the authority of Union Ministry of Home Affairs to unilaterally decide on citizenship issues. The state government’s stand came when it broke its silence on the citizenship row involving Vemulawada MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh.
Never in the past has the government made its stand known in this legal battle, which has been going on for about six years now.
Following this, Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili adjourned the case by two weeks and directed the state government to file its counter affidavit and be prepared for final hearing of the case. The judge extended the stay on the MHA order for two more weeks. Though the state has bought two weeks’ time in the case, senior state police officials are apprehensive about the validity of the argument, as the MHA is not mandated to consult states in deciding about the citizenship of individuals. “In certain category of cases, the states will not have any information as the communication would remain between the MHA and Ministry of External Affairs,” a senior police official told Deccan Chronicle on condition of anonymity.
Presenting arguments
the in the state’s
High
Court, additional advocate general J. Ramachandra Rao said according to Schedule 2 of the Constitution of India, all matters relating to home and law and order fall within the purview of states. The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a unilateral decision in cancelling Ramesh’s citizenship without serving any notice on the state government or obtaining its inputs.
“There was neither consultation with us nor the MHA called for any records, the additional AG pointed out.
Further, he accused the MHA of declaring Ramesh as “not a citizen of India” on a “figment of imagination”, which, he said, is not good in public law. People have great faith and confidence in Ramesh, as reflected by his repeated victory from Vemulawada, he maintained. He sought a month’s time to get back to the court with all relevant details.
However, Ravikiran Rao, counsel for petitioner Adi Srinivas, argued that states have no role to play in deciding the citizenship. He pointed out that Ramesh himself made an application before the Indian Embassy in Berlin, Germany, stating that he is not an Indian citizen. The MHA brought the same fact to the notice of the court in its affidavit, Ravikiran Rao said. He maintained that the material evidence submitted by the centre is sufficient enough to decide the case.
It was not just the workers at the under-construction Tapovan hydroelectric power project on Dhauliganga river who had no clue what was in store for them on the morning of February 7, when a huge chunk of the Nanda Devi glacier came apart and crashed down. The sudden cascading of torrential volumes of water, resulted in a disastrous flash flood of water and debris that has so far left 54 dead, with another 116 persons unaccounted for as on Tuesday.
Even the higher-ups and officials, including the management of the Hyderabad-based Rithwik Projects Private Limited, which is constructing the project had no clue. “There was no monitoring system. There was no alarm, either from the Central government or the Uttarakhand government, or the units of the Border Security Force (BSF) or IndoTibetian Border Police (ITBP) in the area,” C.M. Rajesh, executive director of Hyderabadbased Rithwik Projects Private Limited, told Deccan Chronicle.
C.M. Rajesh is the brother of C.M. Ramesh, who is currently a member of Rajya Sabha with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr Ramesh was, however, elected as an MP when he was part of the Telugu Desam. He, along with three other TDP MPs, broke the six member TD RS group and joined the ruling BJP after the 2019 elections.
Rithwik Projects was awarded the contract for the construction of a barrage and desilting chamber, referred to as ‘balancing works’, for the run-of-theriver 520 megawatt power plant, designed to generate hydel power from four 120 MW units.
“We were scheduled to complete construction by December this year. Already 99 per cent of the barrage work has been completed. Work is in progress on the desilting chamber at the
1,060 metres tunnel,” Rajesh said.
Though Uttarakhand suffered badly during the 2013 flash floods, the state government never established a monitoring mechanism, he said. He also indicated that nowhere in the run up to the construction or after beginning it, was a possible or potential threat from upstream events brought to the notice of the company.
Rajesh said that everyone in his firm was distraught over the loss of lives, adding that the workers on site had very little time to escape because of the absence of a warning.
“It was thanks to a phone call from a villager upstream from the project site that an alarm was sounded off. Some of the staff managed to get to safety before the flood hit the site,” he said.
On the possible financial impact on Rithwik Project because of the disaster and accident, Rajesh said that the “company itself does not expect to face any adverse commercial impact” on account of the accident “because of insurance”.
The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is providing an ex-gratia of `20 lakh to the kin of victims and a permanent job to one person from each of the affected families. These families will also receive anywhere between `8 lakh to
`15 lakh through the workmen insurance compensation. Rithwik would not have to pay any amount from its exchequer.
The rescue operations, meanwhile, are hampered by tons of slush and debris. Work, though slow, is expected to continue for the next few days. The clean up job, before work can be resumed complete the rest of the construction at Tapovan, is expected to take at least a few months.
The World Health Organisation has granted an emergency authorisation to AstraZeneca's Coronavirus vaccine, a move that should allow the UN agency's partners to ship millions of doses to countries as part of a UN-backed programme to tame the pandemic.
In a statement Monday, the WHO said it was clearing the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and South Korea's AstraZeneca-SKBio. The WHO's green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second one the UN health agency has issued after authorizing the PfizerBioNTech vaccine in December. Monday's announcement should trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the UN-backed COVAX effort, which aims to deliver vaccines to the world's most vulnerable people. “Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk,” said Dr. Mariangela Simao, the WHO's Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products.
The Coronavirus has infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million of them. But many countries have not yet started vaccination programmes and even rich nations are facing shortages of vaccine doses as manufacturers struggle to ramp up production. The AstraZeneca vaccine has already been authorised in more than 50 countries, including Britain, India, Argentina and Mexico. It is cheaper and easier to handle than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which needs deepcold storage that is not widespread in many developing nations.
Both vaccines require two shots per person, given weeks apart. Last week, WHO vaccine experts recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over age 18, including in countries that have detected variants of Covid-19.
But that was contrary to the recommendation from the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said countries that had identified a virus variant first seen in South Africa should be “cautious” in their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, suggesting that other shots be prioritised instead.
The AstraZeneca vaccine forms the bulk of COVAX's stockpile and concerns were recently raised after an early study suggested it might not prevent mild and moderate disease caused by the variant first seen South Africa. Last week, South Africa scaled back its planned rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, opting instead to use an unlicensed shot from Johnson & Johnson for its health care workers. COVAX has already missed its own goal of beginning coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries at the same time that shots were rolled out in rich countries.
Numerous developing countries have rushed in recent weeks to sign their own private deals to buy vaccines, unwilling to wait for COVAX. WHO and its partners, including the vaccines alliance GAVI, have not said which countries will receive the first doses from COVAX.