To contain the political fallout of the severe power crisis in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has summoned Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh and his top officials on Friday for a review meeting.

With not a single mega watt directly added to the grid by state utilities during the Congress regime since Dabhol went down in 2001, Maharashtra

is reeling under power cuts. The extent of peak load-shedding being currently carried out is like switching off power supply of entire Delhi (3800 MW). The peak deficit in the state has more than doubled from around 1,500 MW in 2001-2 to over 4700 MW by March 2007. And this deficit is growing each day because power supplied by state utilities is unable to meet the rising demand.

The situation is so bad that an angry mob set fire to the house of an MLA in the Ramtek Lok Sabha segment last month. And all this when Maharashtra’s own former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde is the Union Power Minister.

Figures show that over a period of five years, the peak demand has galloped from around 12,000 MW to as much as 17,500 MW now. Conservative projections show that this demand is expected to touch 22,000 MW in four years—the highest in the entire country.

While the plan for the state was to add 500 MW during the Tenth Plan period, the 250 MW thermal plant at Parli awaits synchronisation and the completion of the 250 MW plant at Ghatghar has spilled over to this financial year.

... contd.