Assam power outage: Govt's contradictory statements brew questions?

GUWAHATI: Amid the festivities of the much awaited Durga Puja in Assam, the spirits of the citizens have been dimmed by a public notice released by its electricity distributor recently.

Casting a shadow of darkness among citizens, the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) released a public notice warning people of  inevitable power outages during Puja due to limited coal availability.

"Due to limited coal availability, the generation of power from Thermal Generating Stations has decreased considerably. The power position is clearly at critical level and power outages/load shedding may be inevitable. Kindly bear with us and use electricity judiciously. Energy saved is Energy saved generated inconvenience caused is highly regretted,", the notice read.

Contrary to the notice APDCL on Monday further tweeted that 'Sufficient power is available while tagging the state power Minister Bimal Bora.

“Sufficient power is available. APDCL is committed to provide uninterrupted supply of power to our esteemed consumers. Consumers need not to panic", the tweet read.

The contradictory information provided by the power distributor left the netizens in a state of confusion.

Meanwhile,  the Ministry of Coal in a press release on Sunday reassured that ample coal is available to meet the demands of power plants.

it added that "any fear of disruption in power supply is entirely misplaced".

These contradictory statements by the state as well as the central government have raised several questions.

The pandemic had already proved to be a spoilsport last year for puja celebrations. With some relaxations received by the state government, the citizens were hoping for a better puja experience. As such, this hotchpotch of information by the government on power supply, and outage is something the citizens are not in a state to entertain.

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