Manoj Tiwari writes to LG to resolve power cuts in city
In his letter to LG Anil Baijal, the Delhi chief of BJP also demanded a meeting with officials of the Delhi Jal Board and Delhi Transco
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on Wednesday wrote to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal over the frequent power cuts and water shortage in several parts of the city, while demanding a meeting with the Delhi Jal Board and Delhi Transco Ltd.
In the letter, Tiwari also targeted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that the Aam Aadmi Party leader was too busy playing “power games” that he failed to chalk out a summer plan for power and water supply in the city.
“I have written to the Lieutenant Governor to call a high-level meeting of bureaucrats and engineers of DJB, Transco and the power department to find a solution to the problem of repeated power cuts and water shortage being experienced by the people,” said Tiwari.
17 million people of Delhi have been facing frequent power cuts and voltage fluctuation for long hours in several parts in the past few weeks.
According to a report, on Wednesday, the peak-hour electricity consumption touched 5,756 MW and the lowest was recorded to be 3,746 in the day.
However, the peak power consumption on Tuesday touched 6,021 MW during the afternoon.
Officials of power utilities said, “The demand this year has hiked more as compared to the previous years. Last year, the 6,000 Mw-mark was breached on May 19 and then the demand touched a record high of 6,261 MW on June 30.”
According to the discoms and Delhi Transco, they are better prepared this year. In contrast to this, the BJP letter alleged that areas like South West, belts of North Delhi and also the rural areas are facing daily power cuts of two to three hours.
Residents of Greater Kailash, Malviya Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Shakur Basti, Shalimar Bagh, Patel Nagar, Rajender Nagar, Vishwas Nagar and Patparganj areas have reported that their expensive domestic electronic devices are getting damaged, owing to voltage fluctuations and sudden power cuts, especially around midnight.
“Though Delhi has an adequate power of up to 7,000 MW, an increase in demand has lead to the system coming under stress because of excessive heating of power lines. When the average demand remains consistently high, the lines are unable to recover, leading to local faults that make them trip. On top of that, poor maintenance makes the lines more vulnerable,” said an official.