Weak Governance Responsible For ‘Power Outage’ In Odisha: Dharmendra Pradhan

Bhubaneswar: Amid massive public outrage over power supply disruption across districts with severe heatwave conditions sweeping Odisha, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday blamed governance deficit in the present regime for the inconvenience being faced by the people.

“While several other states generate electricity with coal from Odisha, the people of the state are experiencing loading shedding despite presence of abundant coal and hydroelectricity projects. The state government is responsible for this situation as people’s representatives and those responsible for it are doing little and instead what we see is propaganda barrage,” he said.

Dharmendra also expressed reservation over Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena tweet, pulling up pull up TPCODL for sluggish restoration for summer storm. “Such statements from the administrative head pointing fingers at the power distribution company is shameful. The government must have signed an agreement with the discoms regarding proper supply of electricity to the people. It should now ensure its proper implementation,” he said.

He further said that the energy minister of the state is using sophistry to obscure the truth. “If this is not enough, the ministers and secretaries are making statements against each other over this matter. This is an example of administrative failure,” he said.

People are suffering in the scorching summer despite paying taxes and electricity bill and such a situation arises when the administrative machinery completely collapses, he added.

On Monday, Bhubaneswar sizzled at 43.8°C on Monday and the heat unbearable made it impossible for people step out of their houses after 10am. What has made the matter worse is the ongoing power cuts in Bhubaneswar and other parts of the state.

Taking stock of the power supply situation at a high-level meeting with chief executive officers (CEOs) of four distribution companies (discoms) at Lok Seva Bhavan here, Jena asked discoms to take prompt measures to restore power supply in case of disruption due to Nor’westers. The TPCODL, TPSODL, TPNODL and TPWODL were also asked to put in place a system for quick response and immediate resolution of grievances raised through social media.

“Care should taken to ensure that each of the call from consumers to customer care service centres are responded to with proper clarification about the time required for restoration of power supply. Any negligence in this regard in future will be viewed seriously,” he told the CEO of Tata Power, while asking him to improve the functioning of the centres by engaging additional manpower.

The Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited and discoms have also been advised to prepare long-term transmission and distribution plan for next 10-15 year keeping in mind the demand growth.