Pargat slams AAP govt over power outages

Chandigarh: Congress MLA and former education minister Pargat Singh on Wednesday punched holes in the AAP govt's claim of making Punjab power-surplus, alleging that a gap of around 1,500 MW has emerged between electricity demand and supply in Punjab.He said the situation was likely to worsen with rising temperatures. Farmers are also receiving little electricity supply, Pargat added.We are in the third week of April, and unannounced power cuts lasting 8 to 10 hours have begun in cities and villages amid severe heat and heat-wave alerts. The situation has particularly turned grim in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bathinda and Patiala, claimed the senior leader."If these conditions continue, people might have to face outages during nighttime as well. The Punjab power utility has failed to bridge the electricity shortage," he said.Pargat highlighted that in the past week, power demand in Punjab surged from 6,500 MW to more than 10,000 MW. To hide failures, unannounced power cuts are being imposed on the pretext of "beautification". Consumers are also not being given accurate information through helpline numbers, he added.MSID:: 130443296 413 |