Report contradicts minister’s assurance on power situation

The situation turned so precarious that Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) had to introduce the compulsory two-day power staggered holiday on high tension and low-tension non-continuous process industries across the state. The move was later withdrawn,and reduced to a single-day cut,due to timely rains and improvement in overall power supply.

Moreover,according to CEA,the state recorded an average power deficit of 26.7 per cent in 2007-08 while it was 30.2 per cent the previous year.

However,GUVNL officials,while toeing the minister’s line,said the criterion adopted by CEA to calculate the power scenario was flawed,as it did not take into account the state government’s policy of only 8-hour power supply to rural areas for agricultural purposes.

S B Khyaliya,Executive Director (Finance),GUVNL,said,“Gujarat is a power surplus state.”

This notion of power ‘abundance’ also led to the Gujarat government to agree to supply 100 MW to Karnataka depending on the day-to-day requirement,just before the elections. Incidentally,Karnataka’s peak power deficit (5 per cent) and average power deficit (6 per cent) in 2008-09 were much lower than that of Gujarat.

So,even as the industrial sector in the state fears another summer of power cuts and agencies like the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian

Economy (CMIE) in its analysis of Gujarat reports the power deficit in the state to be above 15 per cent,that reaches the level of 21 per cent during the peak demand period,the state authorities stick to their claim of ‘no power shortage’ in the state.