india

Updated: Jun 05, 2019 19:28 IST

Under pressure from the Opposition for unscheduled power cuts across the state, chief minister Kamal Nath appealed to people on Wednesday to be wary of rumours and blamed the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government and manmade obstructions behind unscheduled power cuts in the state.

“I want to assure you that shortage of electricity is no reason behind the power related problems being experienced for the past few days. The reasons are not making improvements in the system in the past and creating manmade obstructions in smooth supply (of power),” said Nath in advertisements issued in local newspapers on Wednesday.

He said there was more power generation than demand in Madhya Pradesh and hence no shortage of power. But, he indirectly blamed the previous BJP government for the power failure.

CM’s media coordinator Narendra Saluja said, “The manmade obstructions meant obstructions created by ‘BJP minded people’ in the power distribution companies.”

Saluja said, “As many as 32987 million units of power was supplied to people from January, 2019 to May, 2019 whereas during this corresponding period in 2018 the supply was 29207 million units. Thus, more than 12.9% power was supplied more this year.”

Similarly, he said, “The planned shutdown from March 2019 to May 2019 was 16774 whereas the same during the corresponding period last year was 29974. The number of unplanned shutdown during the period this year was 127673 against 129760 during the corresponding period the last year.”

Saluja said the BJP indulged in propaganda on social media deliberately despite the fact the situation had improved during the Congress government.

Unscheduled power cuts across the state was a major issue during the Lok Sabha polls too when more than 500 employees and officers including engineers were suspended across the state, mostly in western region, for not discharging their duties efficiently.

BJP leaders and workers took out ‘chimney rallies’ in Sehore and Bhopal during their campaign for the Lok Sabha to remind people of ‘return of Digvijaya Singh era’ in Madhya Pradesh. They have also been attacking the government since the Lok Sabha polls over the unscheduled power cuts which exerted pressure on the government and led to a series of review meetings in the past few days.

In the past couple of days, CM Nath attended at least two review meetings. He warned officials concerned to improve the system or face action.

State BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said, “If situation has improved during the Congress regime then why did the CM warned the officials and why MLAs from his own party are complaining about unscheduled power cuts.”

Lunawat said instead of blaming the BJP and the employees and officials, the CM should take measures to make improvements in the system in his own government and admit that Congress is incapable of running the government.