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Industries Rally in Support of Kudankulam Power Project

  • To organise State-wide protest and fast on December 20,Nearly 20 industrial associations here will be part of the State-wide protest and fast planned by industries on December 20 demanding the immediate commissioning of the Kudankulam power project.Coimbatore District Small Industries Association president M. Kandhasami told presspersons here on Saturday that the industries here would put up the shutters and manufacturers would observe fast from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on December 20. Over 2,000 participants were expected. Similar protests would be held in all districts. Small and medium-scale entrepreneurs in southern districts would take part in a fast at Tirunelveli.Low Tension (LT) power consuming industries went without power for more than six hours a day now and the duration was higher for High Tension (HT) consumers.
  • Mahendra Ramdas, president of Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers' Association, said that given a choice, most of the HT industries were ready to go in for third party power as long hours of power cut were hampering production.S. Ravikumar, president of Coimbatore Tirupur District Micro and Cottage Entrepreneurs Association, said the industries wanted uninterrupted power supply and equal distribution of the power available in the State. The focus should be on efforts to commission the Kudankulam project as it would provide nearly 1,000 MW.

POWER HOLIDAY

  • Mr. Kandhasami said the association had also suggested to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation to implement power holiday once a week for all electricity consumers in the State from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. This would ensure uninterrupted supply on other days of the week and enable domestic consumers to plan their daily activities.Opposing this suggestion, K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, told The Hindu that the consumer body would appeal to the Corporation against power holiday for all consumers.This would mean power cut for four-five days a month apart from monthly shutdown for maintenance. Small businesses such as photocopying outlets would be hit. They would have to close down twice a week or work on Sundays.Instead, the government should declare power cut across the State and the power available should be shared equally. Even when the State had faced worse power situations, measures such as shutdown for four or five days a month had not been necessary, he said.

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