State government admitted that shortage of coal and tripping of power units have aggravated the power crisis leading to long power cuts in almost all parts of the State. However, government also claimed to have handled the situation despite of scarcity and is in touch with the Central government to meet out coal shortage at earliest so that smooth supply could be ensured.
``Due to coal shortage, the NTPC units of Singrauli and Rihand have been affected which has curtailed the share of UP. Besides the lanco unit in private sector and Paricha of the state government has also been affected”, disclosed chief secretary, Alok Ranjan, while confirming of short fall of power generation in the State. “We have written to the Union Coal Secretary about the coal shortage in our power units and he has assured to look into the matter urgently and on priority basis,” Ranjan added.
Replying to a media query during a press conference here on Friday afternoon, Ranjan told reporters that though the state generation units are producing more than 2800 megwatt of power, still there is huge shortfall as the demand has grown up due to the humid conditions. “Our 300 megawatt supply from Himachal Pradesh through banking has also been snapped due to collection of silt following floods there,” he said. Meanwhile, there is a severe law and order problem in the state due to shortage of power. Police has been deployed in all power stations to prevent any damage to the stations. Peoples’ unrest over long power cuts were witnessed in almost all parts of the state. In Kanpur, people attacked a power sub-station while in Ghaziabad, power cut led to murder of a woman in loni area. In Noida too, people staged a violent protest last night to show their anger over non-supply of electricity. The rural area in the state is hardly getting 2 to 3 hours of power daily while in the city areas, there is long power cuts. An official claimed that the average supply in the rural areas was just 6 hours. Against the demand of around over 13300 MW, the state has been supplying just over 10,500 MW with a clear cut shortage of around 2800 MW.