With the State Government discontinuing power cuts in the evening till next month, the Opposition Congress and the BJP have raised questions on how the Government would source power while it claims there is a 450-500 MW power deficit during peak hours.
They alleged that the Government was creating artificial electricity shortage across Odisha in order to benefit private power companies. Senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra charged that the Government was creating power shortage to benefit few companies.
“There is no reason why Odisha would face power shortage and if it was the case, then how suddenly we have enough power for the festival season,” Mohapatra questioned.
On the other hand, former PCC president Niranjan Patnaik highlighted the inefficiency of State Government in managing Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses saying that nowhere in the country the losses are as high as 46 per cent.
“If the Government is able to cut down these losses at least by half, then there will be no power shortage,” said Patnaik.
Earlier, Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das had said that around 150-200 MW power would be generated by using the water conserved for agricultural activities.
“The State Government will borrow 100MW power from Delhi as compared to 50MW”, he had informed.
Das also had stated that the State would also borrow power from Himachal Pradesh and would procure power from Independent Power Producers to meet the shortfall during night.