Andhra Pradesh is reeling under a severe power crisis, unprecedented at a time with the monsoon still around, as thermal generation has fallen steeply following the coalminers' strike in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).
Industries are forced to observe a power holiday for three full days a week, Hyderabad is facing four-hour-long power cuts, smaller cities and towns up to eight hours and farmers dependent on borewell irrigation are trembling over the likely prospect of the kharif crop withering away for lack of water.
The crisis also threatens to spill onto the roads. Tension prevailed for the second day running on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad National Highway 9 when Telangana activists obstructed buses coming from coastal Andhra to protest against the denial of power to the farmers. Unlike on Sunday, when they damaged over 30 buses, the situation on Monday did not go out of hand as the Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy promised to resolve their grievance.
Coal production falls
Apart from complete paralysis of bus services in Telangana, the power sector is the worst hit by the 22-day-old strike called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) as coal production in SCCL has plummeted from a daily average of 1.50 lakh tonnes to 36,700 tonnes. Thermal stations, particularly NTPC's 2600 MW unit at Ramagundam, have taken a hit while hydel stations are operating below full capacity as there are no inflows in the Krishna river.
The NTPC has been forced to shut down one 500 MW unit and reduce generation from others. As a result, it is operating at 70 per cent of its capacity (1520 MW) thus affecting power supply not only in AP (31.5 per cent share), Tamil Nadu (24 per cent), Karnataka (18 per cent), Kerala (12 per cent) but also in Goa and Puducherry.
Dry spell in south
What has made things worse is that Southern States are passing through a prolonged dry spell that has only increased the demand for power. In AP, the total demand has shot up to 272 million units (mu) whereas the supply from all sources is 225 mu. The brunt of this 47 mu shortfall is being borne by the industries which consume forty per cent of the power generated, APTRANSCO chairman and managing director Ajay Jain told The Hindu.
Ironically, Telangana farmers are the worst-hit because they are more dependent on borewells than their coastal Andhra counterparts, which have large delta tracts. Pointing out that 60 per cent of the borewells lie in Telangana, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy said TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and T-JAC convenor would have to take the blame squarely if the Telangana farmers suffered.
But, Telangana protagonists accuse Mr. Reddy of not allowing hydel stations to operate at full capacity and permitting private players like LANCO to export power to other States, thus causing suffering to farmers in Telangana. The politics over ‘power' is costing the State an extravagant amount of about Rs. 60 crore a day for purchases from outside.
A silver lining in the issue was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's direction to the Eastern Power Grid on Monday to supply 800 MW to Andhra Pradesh.
Keywords: Telangana protests, power crisis, KCR, Eastern Power Grid
Central govt should take immediate action.
As govenor of AP being summoned with situation of law and order deteriorating and basic services like power disrupted it may be time to declare presidents rule return law stabilise as only 1.8% and gainfully employed people,students creating and holding 98%population hostage is notproper.Let us have president's rule and conduct elections to determine the fate kcr&company should accept this if yhey belive in democracy
Rich coal and water in the backyard of Telangana and power plants are built in non-coal and water belt in Rayalaseema and andhra. So that labor workers removing coal are from Telangana while elite work in power plants in rayala-andhra. Hyderabad settlers say leave us alone but when Telangana employee go on strike they want their work back, what a hypocrisy.
How long does this pathetic situation continues? Anyone has got any answer? Damaging private and public property and closing of educational institutions... state is going backwards...
I'm willing to live a pauper's life, giving everything to everybody else
if they all agree to call themselves Indian Citizens and give up all
other identities.
People are pinched for so many decades without
power/opportunities/resources and now they are showing how it feels
to be affected. I think you are all complaining because these people
are agitating for the past 22 days, but what about their
pain/suffering for the past 30-40 years?
So when the pinch is made then only its realized and comes under
discussion.
One can agitate for their genuine demands but to turn violent and blame others is not right
Telangana agitation leading to reduction in coal production from Singareni collieries not only affected the power supply in Andhra Pradesh but also in the neighbouring states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Is the Govt. at centre not bothered about it and its commitment to the well being of acommon man in the country, irrespective of region and state. Should it not find a solution for the problems confronting the common man. Just to remain In power should the power supply for day to day life be ignored?
The political parties and protesters supporting Telangana, it seems are determined to use terrorism to acheive their unethical demand. I cant understand why the Congress has become a sitting goose, tolerating such serious breach of law and order, loss of public property etc., Even if the Telangana comes to reality, do we need such leaders and people who promote violence, terrorism to rule. Its time to take hard decisions and invoke necessary acts in constituition to crush this movement.
Blaming somebody will not help out anyone in current situation. Why cant the JAC leaders consider crops and power generation as emergency service and exclude the coal employees in demonstration. What is the point in following objectionable ways of demonstrating their anger and blaming Govt for everything.
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