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Districts Seek Uniform Power Cut

  • Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation’s (Tangedco) Chennai-centric power policy has left people in the districts fuming. Irked by the “step-motherly treatment” meted out to people across the state barring Chennai, the consumers, both domestic and industrial, who are made to suffer without electricity for eight hours a day, have demanded uniform power cut as their counterparts in the state capital face a negligible one hour power cut. 
  • This resentment could be seen at the public hearing on tariff revision held by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission in Madurai recently. Many a speaker came down heavily on Tangedco’s bias against people in the districts and put forth their demand for ‘uniform power cut.’ In fact, a speaker called for carrying out a procession to the state capital to express people’s anger over the discrimination shown to them for living in Tier-II and III cities and smaller towns and villages.
  • Trade and industrial bodies are even more cut up with the Tangedco for its ‘favour Chennai’ attitude. They have called upon the government to cast this approach off and put in place a transparent power policy.“There is no justification or rationale behind the preferred treatment meted out to Chennai with just one hour power cut when the rest of the state is forced to undergo several hours of power cut. This has resulted in those residing in Chennai being oblivious of the gravity of the situation prevailing in the rest of the state. 
  • Trade and industrial units all over the state without any distinction remit only the same tax rate and charges. Hence in all fairness, the duration of power cut / load shedding should be the same without any disparity throughout the state including for multinational companies,” Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry senior president S. Rethinavelu said. Industrialists lament that the corporation’s discriminatory approach has only given an unfair advantage to their competitors in Chennai. Meenakshi Sundaram, a medical practitioner, had filed a petition in the Madurai bench of Madras high court in 2010 charging that the Tangedco was treating those living in other parts of the state as second-class citizens. His prayer — uninterrupted power supply to all in the districts like in Chennai – continues to remain unheard. 
  • State awaits new thermal plants to ease power crisis .The unscheduled power cuts are turning out to be a nightmare for students, who are gearing up to take their board exams, and industries, which foresee a dip in the production if outages continue. Resenting the lack of measures to restore uninterrupted power supply, people have begun taking to the roads to register their protest. 
  • Except for Chennai city, all other parts of the state are facing unscheduled power cut ranging from six to eight hours. With the power demand touching 11,500 MW, the Tangedco (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation) is facing a deficit of 3,500 MW. The Tangedco pins its hopes on commissioning of Vallur, North Chennai and Mettur thermal power station for tiding over the present power crisis. As for the Vallur thermal power project promoted by the erstwhile Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and NTPC, the first unit of 500 MW would be commissioned by March. Of this, the state’s share would be 375 MW. The 3 X 500 MW plant is being set up at a cost of `8,444 crore. The second and third unit would be commissioned by June this year and February 2013. 
  • The 600 MW Mettur TPS, which was scheduled to produce power by September 2011, will go on stream by March 2012. The commissioning of 1,200 MW North Chennai thermal power station stage- 2 would be delayed further. The unit I was originally schedule to go on stream by May last year but had been subsequently revised to February 2012 and then to October. The delay was mainly due to accidental drowning of a key ‘generator stator’ in a river in Madhya Pradesh during transit from BHEL plant in Haridwar to Chennai last year. “We hope to commission the project as per schedule to overcome the crisis,” an official said, adding that besides capacity addition, the Tangedco is also exploring avenues to purchase power from other states.

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