Chairman AIPEF suggests CM Mann to impose restrictions, review free power policy in Punjab to avoid unmanageable power situation
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ June 17,2024
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has written a letter to the chief minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann to take immediate measures to avoid power crisis situation in Punjab
Dubey in his letter said “This is in continuation to my letter no. 36- Heatwave dated 03.06.2024,addressed to the Prime Minister and endorsed to your good self. While situation of power availability and supply is becoming serious day by day, neither the Govt of India nor any state Govt has initiated steps to control the power demand. If the situation continues alike, there are fair chances of grid disturbance. In the state of Punjab, the power consumption has gone up by 43% between June 1 to 15, 2024, when compared to the same period during 2023 while the Maximum Demand has gone up from 11309MW in June 2023 to 15775MW in June 2024 With additional agricultural load expected to rise by the end of June due to paddy cultivation in whole the state of Punjab, may lead to an unmanageable power situation.”
Dubey added, “AIPEF considers you as the most efficient and pro public Chief Minister in India and thus requests you to lead the initiatives to control the power consumption enlisted in our aforesaid letter.
Chairman AIPEF suggests CM Mann to impose restrictions, review free power policy in Punjab to avoid unmanageable power situation. Dubey said in our opinion, the situation is going to be serious if these steps reiterated below are noimplemented immediately:
- The office timings should be changed to 7am to 2pm .
- All the commercial establishments, Malls, shops should be closed at 7pm.
- Peak load restrictions should be imposed on Industry.
- Paddy sowing in the remaining areas of Punjab state should be shifted to June 25, and no one should be allowed to violate the date. The water guzzling varieties like PUSA 44 should be banned and encourage varieties like PR126, Basmati, etc. which mature in 90 days.
- Power theft should be covered as an offence under NSA.
- Free power as a state policy should be reviewed forthwith.
- The Minister of Power, Govt of India, may be approached to allocate at least 1000MW additional power extra from central pool on TOP PRIORITY.