Power dept to take spl measures to keep tab on pandals during Puja

Kolkata: State Power Minister Aroop Biswas on Friday said that his department is all set to check various power installations ahead of Durga Puja and monitoring will be done at Puja pandals to check electrical wearing.

He was speaking to the reporters outside the Assembly.

A high-level meeting will soon be carried out by the minister where he will review the special arrangements taken by the department before Pujas, the minister said.

A video conferencing will be done to take stock of the situation and the preparedness.

Biswas said that there are around 2.60 crore consumers in the state out of which around 35 lakh consumers are of CESC. Arrangements will be made to ensure an uninterrupted power supply during the Puja season and also to prevent any untoward incident during the festival days across Bengal.

Incidentally, the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) had received more than 41,237 Puja applications from across the state last year. In 2021, the WBSEDCL had received around 40,124 applications.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Asansol Agnimitra Pal in the Assembly alleged that there were repeated incidents of load shedding in Salanpur area of Asansol and she drew the attention of the power minister. Pal also claimed that the people in the area could not see the ascent of ‘Chandrayaan-3’ on the Moon as there was power cut.

In reply to the question by Pal, Roy rubbished Pal’s claim and said that there is a surplus production of power in the state. In Saranpur, power cuts occurred for two days for nearly 4 hours as maintenance works were underway. The work was carried out in the early morning or night hours. The minister said that the allegation was completely baseless as the landing of ‘Chandrayaan-3’ was shown in the evening. The local BDO was given prior information about the system upgrade.