Bhubaneswar: Activists of Naba Nirman Yuva Chhatra Sangathan on Saturday gheraoed the residence of Odisha Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb in Bhubaneswar blaming him for frequent power disruptions across the state.
A large number of activists of the organisation staged a demonstration outside the Minister’s residence raising slogans against him and Tata Power accusing them of having failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to the people.
Thouh Odisha is a power surplus state, supply of electricity to the people had become erratic amid frequent disruptions, making life miserable for the people during the scorching heatwave coupled with high humid conditions.
Holding the Minister responsible for power outages, the protesters also demanded Deb’s resignation. They accused the Minister of misleading people by making claims that there has been no power cut in the state.
Stating that Rs 20,000 crore was sanctioned for the development of power infrastructure, the demonstrators said additional funds were also sanctioned for underground cabling work in Bhubaneswar. However, no concrete step has been taken to provide uninterrupted power to the people, they claimed.
The demonstrators also demanded free electricity of 200 units per household and free power for agriculture sector in the state.
Police personnel deployed at the site took away the demonstrators after a minor scuffle.
