Patna,(BiharTimes): A large part of Bihar’s capital, Patna, has been facing acute power shortage. The power situation worsen just after the advent of summer and has little to do with Monday (July 6) heavy downpour.
Eight to 10 hours power cut has become quite common. Even if there is power the citizens face acute voltage fluctuation forcing them to switch off their refrigerators, televisions, ACs etc.
On Tuesday the situation got worsened with even the main market areas of the city facing prolong power cut throughout the day. The night too was not spent very well. Parts of the state capital also faced water crisis.
There was virtual black out in large part of Patna last weekend, that is on the intervening night of Saturday-Sunday. Even the posh colonies were not spared.
Public memory is short but not so short as to forget the promise chief minister Nitish Kumar had made while delivering Independence day speech in 2012. He had then said that he would not contest the 2015 Assembly election if the electricity situation does not improve in the state by then.
So far generation of energy is concerned it has certainly seen an im-provement. NTPC’s Barh plant has also started supplying power and the Kanti too has started generation. Yet of all the places it is Patna, once the best served city of the state, is facing chronic shortage.
Sources close to electiricty department attribute this to the poor maintenance and problem in distribution.
Rural areas have seen some signs of improvement, especially in the chief minister’s home district of Nalanda. But this is only one side of the story. The credit should also go to the centrally-sponsored Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutkaran Yojana.
“The problem with the chief minister, an electrical engineer himself, is that he refuses to accept the fact that notwithstanding rise in genera-tion of power a sizeable section of the people are still deprived of the regular energy supply. Something somewhere is wrong and he would have to realize it,” commented an analyst.