Karnataka denied power from the Central Grid

After receiving an “adverse” verdict fromthe Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal over sharing ofCauvery river waters, Karnataka had to face themortification of its request for power from theCentral Grid being turned down by the FederalGovernment.

Sharing this “bad news” with reporters in Bangalore,Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy asked peopleof the State to brace themselves for load-shedding inthe coming summer when the power shortage in the Statewill become acute. Load-shedding will become inevitable as the Federal Government had expressed itsinability to bail out the State from its present powercrisis, he said.

Kumaraswamy said he had met Federal Minister for PowerSushil Kumar Shinde during his recent visit to NewDelhi and briefed him about the power shortage in theState. The Federal Power Minister had reportedly toldKumaraswamy that other states like Maharashtra,Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh too were facing acute powerscarcity in their respective states and added that itwas difficult to allow Karnataka to draw additionalpower from the Central Grid.

Against the power shortage of 500 MW in Karnataka, thepower shortage in Maharashtra and Gujarat was to thetune of 5,000 MW and 3,500 MW respectively. AndhraPradesh was also facing a power shortage of about2,300 MW. Sushil Kumar Shinde reportedly toldKumaraswamy that the Federal Government is not in aposition to sanction power to Karnataka from theCentral Grid as it has already allotted additionalpower to Andhra Pradesh.

The Karnataka Chief Minister told reporters that hehad already issued instructions to officials in theState to take appropriate steps to ensure that thefarmers and common people in the State were not put tohardship due to the load-shedding. The officials havebeen told to also explore the possibilities ofstepping up internal generation of power andpurchasing power from the neighbouring states to tideover the power crisis.