Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is prescribing a desperate dose to tide over an unprecedented shortfall of almost 50 million units per day. The deficit has forced the government to impose a five-hour power cut in major cities including capital Hyderabad.
Even as the state government blames deficit rains and decline in gas-based power generation, farmers are bearing the brunt of the shortfall. One of the farmers, Venkat reddy said, "There is hardly any power to run our bore-wells here. How do we water our crop? This has to improve else we will lose everything."
While on one hand the government cannot go back on its promise of free seven-hour power supply to the agricultural sector, on the other hand, it cannot afford to impose any further cuts than the current three-day power holiday on the industrial sector. With little power to share, prioritising sectors is the Chief Minister's biggest challenge.
Many small and medium scale industries have retrenched their workforce in order to survive the incurring losses.
Reddy said, "We have decided to waive off electricity duty for industries who want to buy power directly or want to do captive power generation."
Apart from seeking additional 500 MW from central power stations, Govt officials are looking at the rain gods to tide over the immediate darkness.
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