Punjab's power bill: Rs 15 cr daily

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">CHANDIGARH: Cash-strapped Punjab is living on borrowed power. The bill: a backbreaking Rs 15 crore daily.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">That the crisis may continue till rains set in, hopefully in ten odd days, is certain to churn political stomachs.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Thanks to alarmingly low water levels at Bhakra and Pong reservoirs, Punjab has been left with no option but to outsource power.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The power generation at Bhakra this year has been a huge 10 to 14 million units less as compared to 2003, a problem seriously com-pounded by the coinciding paddy sowing season, a time when demand for electricity shoots up.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The Dehra power house, near Sundernagar in HP, another key power source for Punjab, has also been functioning much below capacity be-cause of low water inflow from Beas river.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">YS Ratra, PSEB chairman, has rushed to Delhi to seek help from the Centre to tide over the crisis.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Rakesh Nath, chairman of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), is upbeat and says the worst may be over to be over as the water level in the Bhakra reservoir has been rising by about one-and-half feet daily in the past three days.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The level stood at 1469.66 feet on Wednesday, 112 feet lower than what it was last year.It touched an all-time low in ten years last week when it plummeted to 1,466 feet.</span></div> </div>