Congress Workers Gherao GRIDCO Office Against Frequent Power Outage In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Congress workers and leaders staged a demonstration and gheraoed the GRIDCO office in Bhubaneswar on Monday to protest frequent power outage across the state amid sweltering heatwave.

A large number of Congress workers gathered at the GRIDCO office holding banners and raising slogans against the Naveen Patnaik government over frequent power outage in the state.

The protesters tried to barge into the GRIDCO office building by breaking the barricades, but they were prevented by the police personnel deployed at the site. The demonstrators were seen throwing tomatoes at the building.

Mounting a scathing attack on the BJD government and Tata Power over erratic power supply, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak sought concrete steps to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the people.

Stating that Rs 20,000 crore was allotted for power infrastructure development in the state, the PCC chief said of the total amount, Rs 5,000 crore was given to Tata Power when the company took over the task of power distribution.

Claiming that there is no information about the rest Rs 15,000 crore, Pattanayak said the state government must come out with a white paper on the issue giving details about the amount and tell people as to how the money has been utilised.

Demanding that electricity bills be issued to the consumers as per a fixed timeline, Pattanayak also appealed to people not to pay pending electricity bills till the situation improves.

Veteran Congress leader and MLA Suresh Routray said during Congress government, surplus power were being sold to other states. However, though the state is now power surplus, people have to suffer due to frequent disruptions in supply, he said.