Jaipur: Meeting the power demand of domestic and agriculture consumers is a priority for the Rajasthan government which is making all efforts to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said.
Gehlot held a review meeting at the Chief Minister's residence late Tuesday night regarding power supply in the state.
He instructed the officers that undeclared power cuts should not be done, if the cut is inevitable, proper information should be given to the people of the affected area in advance.
The opposition BJP has targeted the Congress government for the deepening power crisis in the state.
The chief minister said that due to good rains in June-July, the sowing of crops has increased historically. At the same time, due to the lack of rain in August, the demand for electricity for irrigation also increased.
Also, there has been a huge gap between the demand and supply of electricity due to the non-supply of coal from Chhattisgarh and the increase in demand from domestic consumers due to heat and other reasons.
He said that since August 10, about 3300 lakh units of electricity have been made available continuously, which is a record.
Last year the average consumption in the month of August was only about 2300 lakh units, but this year the problem of transformer tripping was faced due to a sudden increase in power load.
He said that not only in the state but in the whole of northern India, the demand for electricity increased unexpectedly in August.
Gehlot said that the state government is ready to buy power even at an expensive rate for adequate power availability to the consumers. But there is no availability of power in the power exchange.
He directed the officials to make electricity available to agricultural consumers by reducing the power being given to industries if required.
The Chief Minister instructed the officers to ensure adequate availability of electricity in time. Due to rain, the work of replacing or repairing damaged transformers in rural areas should be done quickly.
On the other hand, Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore targeted the Congress government of the state for the deepening power crisis in the state.
He said, "The Gehlot government had arrogantly said in the assembly that Rajasthan has become a power surplus state with 23,309 MW of electricity. The government had also promised to provide 100 units of free electricity to the public and fuel surcharge waiver. Whereas today the situation in the state is such that there is a power cut of 5 to 6 hours in urban areas and seven to nine hours in rural areas."
He said, "On one hand the entire power system has come to a standstill, the junior engineers, the strongest link in the power department, are on strike." BJP's state president CP Joshi also wrote about this on the social media platform 'X'.
He said, "The promise of free electricity was made, but where is the electricity in the Congress-ruled government of the state? Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ji, due to your indolent and corrupt policies, today the people of the state are troubled due to the lack of power supply."
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