Power: A week does not pass without us being reminded by some governmental declaration or the other — as if “load-shedding” were not enough of a reminder — of how we are lagging behind in power generation. The government’s answer has been what Professor John Kenneth Galbraith had long ago identified as the forte of Indian planning: therapeutic targetry! There is a big gap? Announce an even bigger target! Accordingly, the 11th plan posits a target of adding 90,700 megawatts — to keep the target from looking too obviously unrealistic, the figure that is usually mentioned is 78,700 megawatts; this is done by excluding the 12,000 megawatts that are supposed to be generated as captive capacity by users. Seven quarters of the 11th plan have already gone. We have added 10,887 megawatts: again, you see the hand of the subterfugists: this figure is inflated to 13,687 megawatts by including 2,800 megawatts that were in fact completed in the last year of the 10th plan and were included in accounts of that year’s achievements! At this rate, experts forecast that we shall add only 40,000 megawatts by the end of the 11th plan: a study prepared for the planning commission itself has forecast that, the way things are going, the gap between demand and supply of power will be larger at the end of the 11th plan than it was at its commencement. On top of all this, the T&D losses — the theft and dacoity losses rather than the transmission and distribution losses they are called — continue at 40 per cent.   

... contd.