Maintaining that the State had adequate power to handle the peak summer demand, Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Monday said the State will not have load-shedding in the summer
Speaking to reporters, he said arrangements had been made to get an additional 900 MW of power through tendering process for the summer.
He blamed the recent spate of power cuts in Bengaluru on the damage to power cables by other utilities such as the BBMP, BMRCL, and BWWSB. He alleged that they had not taken permission from the power utility for their work, which resulted in damage to power cables.
The Energy Department had now issued strict instructions against granting line clearance for any such works till the completion of summer, he said.
He launched a counter-attack on Union HRD Minister and Karnataka BJP’s poll in-charge Prakash Javadekar, who had recently alleged that the State was experiencing long hours of power cuts. Mr. Shivakumar alleged that the Centre had now cancelled State’s leases for two coal mines, meant for its thermal power plants. Instead of making false allegations, Mr. Javadekar should look at convincing the Centre to reverse its decision on coal mines, he said.
