Chandigarh: Even as the Punjab government braces to ensure deliverance of the first guarantee of 300 units of free power, the state is witnessing power outages because of coal shortage. Top officials of the state government held meetings in Delhi on Monday and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is also expected to hold meetings with AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the modalities of giving 300 units of free power to people.
It is learnt that free power is to be given to 73.39 lakh consumers and the cost of giving free power to all is estimated at around Rs 1,300 crore per month. With the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited already under “financial strain”, the government will have to think of ways not to overstrain the state power utility.
Meanwhile, Punjab’s power situation continued to be grim as four thermal units remained shut, causing a loss of 1,410 MW. While two units of GVK thermal plant are shut because of coal shortage, one unit of Talwandi Sabo Power Limited at Mansa is shut because of a technical snag and another unit of Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant at Ropar is shut for annual maintenance.
Though officers in the PSPCL maintain that there is no shortage, in spite of a huge surge in demand, reports coming in from various parts of the state show that there have been unscheduled and long power cuts.
The state already gives free power to agriculture pump set consumers, and some units of free power to socially and economically disadvantaged sections. Also, industry gets subsidy on power. There is a total power subsidy bill of Rs 12,000 crore for this fiscal (without the 300 units of free power).