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‘Bihar’s Share of Power Diverted to AP, Assam’

  • The unallocated power of eastern grid of central power plant meant for the five states in eastern region is being diverted to Hyderabad and Guwahati. The plant's stalled capacity is 4940MW, of which 15% is unallocated and reserved for Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Sikkim for emergency requirements.

  • As per the rules, unallocated power could not be diverted to states which are in a position to sell electricity so the states like West Bengal, Odisha and Sikkim would not be given power from this head and only Bihar and Jharkhand have their claim over it. But, of the 741 MW unallocated power, Bihar is getting only 256 MW and Jharkhand only 140MW, while the remaining 345 MW is being diverted elsewhere illegally, former chairman of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh electricity boards Rajib Ranjan alleged on Tuesday.

  • "This 345MW power should have been given to power-starved Bihar," said Ranjan, a JD (U) MLA. He alleged that 150MW was diverted to southern grid and 194MW to north eastern grid. The unallocated power cannot be diverted from one grid to another, he said, adding ironically, the southern grid already has 1083MW unallocated power.

  • Praising the efforts of the Nitish Kumar-led government, he said Centre is continuously ignoring the rights and interests of the state as a result of which no new power plant could be set up and Bihar could not achieve the required pace of development due to power scarcity.

Source