Coming down heavily on Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal after he blamed the 15-year Sheila Dikshit rule for the long power outages being witnessed in Delhi, the Congress party said it was the responsibility of the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre to resolve the power crisis as the city which was under Central rule.
The party also targeted the 49-day Aam Aadmi Party Government for the hours-long load shedding in different parts of the city “as it did not prepare a Summer Action Plan” to meet the summer needs.
In a counter attack on Mr. Goyal, the Congress leaders claimed that the Sheila Dikshit Government had ensured round-the-clock electricity supply in the city through a number of power reforms “that were appreciated even by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government”.
“Piyush Goyal is the Union Power Minister and he cannot run away from his responsibilities by blaming the Sheila Dikshit Government. Our Government had managed the power supply efficiently by bringing several reforms in the power sector. Had that not been the case, how did we manage to ensure round-the-clock power supply in the city till the time we were in power,” said Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh.
Earlier, after a meeting with Delhi-Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and power discom officials, Mr. Goyal had said that the Sheila Dikshit Government failed to bring in any policy initiatives in the last 10-12 years to modernise Delhi’s power transmission network due to which the city has been reeling under outages.
Questioning Mr. Goyal’s allegations, former Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf said: “Through the same transmission network, we were able to meet peak hour demand of 5,640 MW last year. In 2012, we met power demand of 5,403 through the same network. Several other reforms were ushered in by the Congress Government including setting up of 250 sub stations across the city which has spread far and wide over the last few years.”
Mr. Yusuf further counted establishment of three power generation plants and islanding of power distribution in the Capital after failure of the Northern Grid last year as some of the major power reforms here.
Meanwhile, the party has also established a control centre at the pradesh committee office to extend help to consumers reeling under power outage. “Residents can SMS about power outage on mobile number 9911911946. They can also mail complaints to maildpcc@gmail.com. Our party workers would ensure that their grievances are met,” said Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma.
