Chief minister Nitish Kumar interacts with journalists after his janata darbar on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Feb. 7: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today said the Centre has done a “disservice” to the people of Bihar by slashing the state’s power quota by 70MW.

“Given the growing need of power in the state, the Centre should have increased the quota to the state. But it has done a great disservice to Bihar by executing a cut in the limited quota of electric power to it,” Nitish said on the sidelines of the weekly janata darbar.

Last week, the Union ministry of power reduced 70MW of power from the allocated quota of 1,792MW to the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) without assigning any reason for it. The ministry had increased the quota from 1,692MW to 1,792MW last year following the state’s demand to raise it in the wake of the drought.

“The drought scenario still has its bearing with farmers needing more power to irrigate their rabi crops. There is no justification, whatsoever, in cutting the quota of the state where the demand of power has increased manifold in the wake of the spread of the electric network to more areas,” Nitish said.

Sources in the BSEB said the central agencies supplied about 900 to 1,300MW of power every day to the state against the allocation of 1,792MW.

Power officials conceded that the electricity crisis could aggravate following the quota cut. Today, for example, the state received 811MW of electricity against the allocated 1,722MW — the 70MW cut having been implemented — from the central sector. “The power situation is quite serious. We are getting reduced power supply from the central sector to manage the entire state,” BSEB spokesman H.R. Pandey said. (See Metro)

Continuing his tirade against New Delhi, the chief minister brought to the fore the “total non-cooperation” of the Centre towards the state which is trying to become energy sufficient. “They (the Centre) are not giving the coal linkage and thus creating a hurdle in setting up the power plants. And they are rubbing salt on our wounds by slashing quota to the state,” he said.

Nitish said he was confident the problems in setting up the 3,300MW power plant at Nabinagar (Aurangabad) would be ironed out. Farmers there are protesting over acquisition of 800 acres of land. “We are very optimistic that we will eventually find out a solution,” he said.

The chief minister, though, refused to join his ally, the BJP, in accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of “inefficiency”.

“I will not say that the Prime Minister is inefficient. It is a different matter that Bihar is not on the Centre’s radar. But I am optimistic that the Centre will eventually have to bring Bihar on its radar if it wants to present India as a developed and prosperous country.”