Bhubaneswar: Though State Energy minister Pranab Prakash Das had assured the House in last Session that there will be no load shedding during summer, unscheduled power cuts coupled with low voltage continue to sap the energy of the people across Odisha.
Besides, unscheduled power cuts in the evening have been in practice in major towns at a time when students are appearing for various national level competitive examinations.
Last month, while replying to a written question in the State Assembly Das had said, “There should be no load shedding this summer both in urban and rural areas as most of the water reservoirs have adequate water due to normal rainfall during the monsoon as per data received from Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco).”
He had also stated that a contingency plan is in place to avoid power cuts in rural and urban areas. ‘’We will meet additional power requirement during the summer by procuring power from different sources,” the minister had assured also pointing at power banking system.
But, residents allege since there is no clear cut policy for power cuts in the State, they are facing drastic load shedding continuously. With the weather playing truant by now, power cuts have made life difficult for most in the state.
“It is high time the State government should come out with a clear cut policy about power cuts in urban and rural areas. It should also make power distribution companies accountable if such things happen,” said Rohit Mohanty, a Bhubaneswar resident.
"The power distribution companies (discom) are not looking into issues as sometimes the outages are due to transformer problems and snag in sub-stations. As the load is more, fuses are tripping. Is it not their responsibility to fix the issues before onset of summer, rued another.
However the discom officials said load shedding is not being carried out currently.
"The power cut in urban areas could be due to Integrated Power Development Scheme
(IPDS) or pre-monsoon maintenance," Gridco director (Finance) BB Mohapatra said.