Demand for power, water leads to political unrest

A Congress delegation led by its Delhi unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely on Monday held Chief Secretary S.K. Srivastava hostage for half-an-hour at the Delhi Secretariat here over the acute power and water crisis in the national capital, according to official sources. 

The Congress leaders, including all its eight elected legislators and senior party leaders, held Srivastava hostage in the conference room of the Delhi Secretariat and did not allow him to go to his fifth-floor office. The Delhi Secretariat is located in central Delhi.

Along with Srivastava,  two others — principal secretary (Power) Arun Goel and Delhi Urban Development principal Rajendra Kumar were also held hostage. 

The Congress chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said that they had decided to hold them hostages as they were not convinced with the reply given to them by the Secretary.

According to the sources, it was at the intervention of other secretaries that the Congress leaders let Srivastava go and agreed to protest outside the government office premises.

The Congress leaders allowed Srivastava to leave after he gave a written assurance promising to take remedial measures within 24 hours. Officials said that the chief secretary in his letter assured that Delhi’s power supply will be improved within 24 hours, but also noted that it will take close to 25 days to completely restore the power supply to normalcy. 

The city is reeling under sizzling high temperatures, and the situation has been made worse by irregular power and water supply.

Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung on Sunday directed the power companies to announce the schedule for power cuts to people in advance and stop electricity supply to malls after 10 p.m. ‘Peak load shedding  conditions occur in the city between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. 

‘So, whenever there is less power supply, the power distribution companies will announce a schedule informing people about the timings when electric supply will be cut,’ Jung said in a statement after he reviewed the worsening power situation in the national capital.

‘Discoms are working out a schedule which will be shared with the public. Also power supply to malls will not be available after 10 p.m.,’ he said.

The meeting was attended by Srivastava, principal secretary (power), senior officers of Delhi Transco Ltd. and chief executive officers of all discoms.

Delhi faces a shortage of 300 to 400 MW every day, according to the statement.

According to BYPL, the areas which underwent severe power cuts are Chuna Bhatti, GTB Enclave, Mandoli, Vijay park , Vivek Vihar, Ghonda , Wazirabad and Dilshad Garden. 

BRPL also issued a long list of power cuts in several areas. 

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) claimed that in this peak summer, they are fully equipped to supply uninterrupted and reliable power to all its consumers. 

However, technical load-shedding constraints prevailed in the Delhi Transco Limited’s Transmission lines such as the 400/220 KV Mandola-Gopalpur-Subzi Mandi line and Bawana-Rohini Lines which are supplying power to our consumers.’ said TPDDL’s spokesperson Ajay Maharaj.