'Power crisis in Odisha man-made'

Bhubaneswar, September 13: The BJP’s Odisha unit on Sunday accused the state government of favouring the power generating companies at the cost of pushing the four crore people of the state into darkness. “The statement of the state government that it would resort to power cut till June 2016 is irresponsible and outrageous. The power crisis is a man-made crisis and the government is responsible for this,” BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra told reporters here. He said the state can outsource 500 to 700 MW of energy from private companies which have set up their plants in Odisha to meet the demand of the consumers. “The state can get power from power generating private companies as state share. Apart from this, it can also source more power from these companies. But, the state government is giving benefit to the companies and allowing to sell power to others,” said Mohapatra. The state government has inked memorandum of understanding with 29 power companies while only three companies - GMR Kamalang, Ind Barath Energy, Sesa Sterlite and Jindal India Thermal Power - are producing power in the state. He demanded immediate roll back of the load shedding decision. On Saturday, state Energy Minister Prab Prakash Das said Odisha may face power cut till June following hydro power shortfall due to deficient water in reservoirs. Expressing grave concerns over the impending drought-like situation in Odisha, BJP state unit president K.V. Singhdeo demanded that the state government should swing into prompt action to take stock of the alarming situation. He said a fact finding team of the BJP has already visited nine districts to take stock of the drought situation and asked the government to assess the situation. (IANS)