Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi inaugurates the foundation day programme of the state power companies in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov. 1: Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today iterated his predecessor Nitish Kumar’s resolve to bring substantial improvement in the power sector by the end of next year, when the Assembly elections are due.

Manjhi made it clear that energy and agriculture were at the foreground of government agenda. The government would extend all possible help to power companies to provide better services and facilities to consumers.

“Our leader, former chief minister Nitish Kumarji, had resolved to bring improvement in the power sector by the end of 2015, failing which he would not seek votes in the Assembly elections. There is still a year left for elections… A resolve like this by any political party or leader shows the commitment and trust in officers and engineers,” Manjhi said. “The state was supplying 500-600MW power when the JDU came to power in 2005, but it has gone up to 2,850MW (in October 2014) because of our efforts and investment,” said Manjhi, adding: “We will achieve the target in 2015.”

Manjhi was speaking on the second foundation day of Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd, North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd, South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd, Bihar State Power Transmission Company Ltd, Bihar State Power Generation Company Ltd .

New schemes

The chief minister inaugurated schemes worth Rs 927.7 crore pertaining to transmission and distribution companies.

Inauguration

Earlier in the day, Manjhi visited Vidyut Bhavan to inaugurate the modern state load dispatch centre, which helps keep tabs on the withdrawal and supply of power .

Tough talk

Finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said: “The government is shelling out Rs 300-325 crore a month to buy power but it would not be able to pay salary to employees if they do not enhance revenue collection. You people should work on ‘no profit no loss’ basis.”

Improvement

BSPHCL CMD Pratyaya Amrit said paucity of power held up Bihar’s industrialisation but things have improved a lot in the past couple of years, evident from the fact that the state’s transmission evacuation capacity was 2,700MW last year but has now increased to 3,500MW. The company intends to take it to 4,500MW by the end of 2015, he added.

Felicitation, awards

The company also felicitated NTPC CMD Arup Roy Choudhury, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited CMD R.N. Nayak and Power Trading Company CMD Deepak Amitabh for significant contribution to the companies. Several district magistrates and other officials of district administration and power companies were also awarded for hard work.