Severe power crisis to hit state
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, November 07 2011: In addition to shortage of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, power crisis is another scourge that the people of Manipur have to brace up for henceforth.

Information received from the Power Department said that the state has not been able to get more than 60 megawatt of power even during the peak hour and there is great fluctuation in the state's share of power supplied from Shillong.

Ensuring proper power supply to the people is becoming a problem these days.

In such a situation, it would be difficult to overcome the impending power crisis without special attention from the side of the government.

Sources in Power Department further disclosed that as against total power requirement of over 100 megawatt during day time in Manipur, just around 40 megawatt of power is being received, and there is no possibility of filling up this gap.

So, the roster system of supplying power to the consumers needs to be altered from time to time.

With onset of winter on one hand and non-availability of LPG cooking gas on the other, most families have started depending on electricity.

With every household using electric rice cookers, there is shortage of voltage when power is supplied even for a short duration.

As there can be no compromise on the supply of power to VIP and other dedicated lines, ordinary customers are bearing the brunt of shortage of power more than anyone else.

There are occasions when there is no power supply to the ordinary customers at all.

Reduce in the water level of most hydro projects in the wake of drought seasons may be one of the main factors for prevailing power crisis and the situation may remain until onset of rainy season, sources said.

On the other hand, some of the power consumers have complained that they are not getting power supply even for 2 hours during day time and this has serious affected the people running small industries.

The Heavy Fuel Power Project installed at Leimakhong at an estimated cost of around Rs 60 crores under Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources of North East Council has been laying defunct as the project is not viable.

When the normal cost of one megawatt of power is Rs 4, consumers have to pay Rs 8 for the same quantity of power to be supplied from the Heavy Fuel Power Plant at Leimakhong.

Moreover, there is not enough stock of heavy fuel with the government.

"In spite of all these, Governor, Chief Minister, MLAs and other VIPs receive regular power supply.

It is hard to assume that they may have any inkling about the problem of power supply being faced by the common people", one of the aggrieved consumer had the last word.

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