Power struggle

Patna, March 27: Residents of Bihar are praying for faster restoration of Talcher thermal power plant in Orissa. The reason: the ongoing power crisis in the state will end only after the Talcher plant restarts power generation.

Hare Ram Pandey, the spokesperson of Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), said the situation is expected to improve once the Talcher power plant starts generation. “The National Thermal Power Corporation is working to restore production at the Talchar plant and we are following up the development,” he said.

Bihar continued to reel under acute power crisis on today as well as the central sector allocation hovered around 860MW. The state witnessed arson and violence at several places on Saturday due to the erratic power supply. Bhagalpur, which saw the most violent protests yesterday, was relatively calm today with health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey intervening and ensuring 30MW of power supply.

Muzaffarpur and its adjoining areas have been facing power crisis since March 23. Normal life of residents of this commercial city has come to a standstill owing largely to the drastic fall of allocation of power supply.

Sanjay Gupta, a resident of Purani Bazaar, accused the state government of “ignoring the plight of its people”. “The state government has left the people of this town in the lurch. It is busy boosting its image by pumping huge money on fanciful activities like Bihar Diwas celebrations,” he said.

North Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NBCCI) also expressed serious concern over the ongoing problem. “Business houses and industries set up in the Bela Industrial Estate , Muzaffapur, have been forced to stop production in lack of power supply,” said Motilal Chaparai, secretary, NBCCI, adding the chamber sent an SOS to chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, requeting intervention in the present crisis but nothing has happened so far.

The power crisis has spelled double whammy for residents of Motihari. Poor power supply for the past two days has led to water scarcity. Those who don’t have their own boring or generator set are forced to fetch water from other places. School and college students, whose exams are going on, are the worst sufferers, while the cricket fans are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping for the situation to normalise by Wednesday when India will take on Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final.

Residents of Gaya, too, have launched protests against the prolonged power crisis in the district. “Members of the Congress party and All India Youth Federation have threatened to lock the office of BSEB, Magadh Area Board general manager if things don’t improve by March 30,” said Congress activist Vijay Kumar Mithu. On Saturday, the activists burnt the effigies of state power minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav at Tower Chowk.

For the past month, only 5 to 10MW power is being supplied to Gaya against the requirement of at least 50MW, Magadh Area Board general manager Om Prakash said. In Purnea, residents took the non-violent route to lodge their protest. Over 150 people, led by one Bhola Nath Alok, presented marigold to electricity department officials and requested them to convey their request for early solution to the power crisis to the government.

Alok, who is in his late 70s, told The Telegraph that he did not want to destroy public property and hence adopted Gandhi’s method of praying to the government.