Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Rural parts of Madhya Pradesh have started facing power outages, with the officials attributing them to shortage of energy as a result of annual overhaul of some coal-fired electricity generation plants and paucity of coal to operate them.
The situation has come to such a pass that ruling BJP's MLA from Maihar constituency, Narayan Tripathi, on Sunday warned of launching a protest from September 4 against what he called as "unscheduled load-shedding", if the state government does not pay heed to his demand.
He said that that the Vindh area of MP, including Rewa and Satna districts, especially its rural areas were facing unannounced power cuts for hours together since a fortnight.
"I am trying to seek audience with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Energy Minister at Bhopal on Tuesday over these unscheduled power cuts in Vindh region. If I don't get a positive response, I am going to launch a protest from September 4," he told PTI.
An official of the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limited, said, "We have taken up some thermal units for annual overhaul. A thermal power station generation has been hit by coal shortage given that the transportation of the fuel and its production gets affected due to rains." Right now, our coal-fired power units and hydel power stations are generating 5,400 MW and 915 MW electricity respectively, he said.
An official of MP Power Management Company Limited (MPPMCL) admitted that power outages were happening in rural areas, but said he was not aware if they were scheduled load-sheddings.
Attempts to contact MPPMCL managing director Akash Tripathi to know the gap between demand and supply of electricity in the state and moves underway to do away with the crisis, failed.
