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Who paid for uninterrupted power
day? You!
WSN Network
JALANDHAR: For one day in the entire season, the people of
Punjab got
electricity throught the day. The reason: On January 21, Sukhbir
Singh Badal was being sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of the
state, and his beloved PTC channel was telecasting the event live
for hours. In order to enable people to watch the grand occasion,
Punjab State Electricity Board made sure that there was no power cut
that day. Notwithstanding the general sense of disgust at such
blatantism, the people had at least enjoyed a day of uninterrupted
power, if you excuse the pun. But now they find that it was not so.
They were made to pay for it.
The PSEB had claimed that it was "sheer coincidence" that the
day was without a power cut but now the energy accounts released by
the Northern Regional Power Committee (NRPC) show that the state was
guilty of overdrawing power from the northern grid that day and it
was booked as “unscheduled interchange” (UI), for which Punjab was
made to pay Rs 2.38 crore. That, dear readers, was the money you and
I paid through the exchequer in order to see our, to use the Korean
term, "beloved leader" being sworn in. That some of you may like use
your own swear words is a separate matter.
The NTPC gas-fired power stations have spare capacity that
can be utilised by using costly liquid fuel. States that require
extra energy give their requisition for this energy, which has rate
ranging between Rs 5.77 and 7.72 per unit. On January 19, the PSEB
gave requisition of only 3.17 lakh units of liquid-fired generation
from NTPC stations while on January 21 the requisition was increased
more than four times to Rs 14.89 LUs.
18
February 2009
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