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Coal shortage leads to energy emergency: Energy Minister Shivakumar

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Bengaluru: The state government has declared energy emergency due to shortage of coal to produce power.

“We have coal stocks only to produce power for half day. We have declared energy emergency for the next two months,’’ Minister for Energy D.K. Shivakumar told reporters here on Tuesday.

The minister said the shortage of coal was not confined to Karnataka only but all the states in the country.
“This situation arises due to the court’s judgement,’’ the minister said.

The minister has directed Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) engineers to procure the required coal without floating tenders to avoid inconvenience to the power consumers.

“There was load-shedding before Congress came to power in the state. Now, there is no such problem,’’ he said.

The power generation capacity was 14,000 MWs before Congress came to power now it has been increased to 19,500 MWs.

“There was a demand for 1,000 MWs during the last summer. We addressed it without any hassles. All taluks will become self-sufficient in power generation by December 2018,’’ he said.

As of now, the KPCL has established power generating units at 95 taluks to supply the required power and these units are expected to supply 2,000 MWs of power.

“The power generating units will be established in the remaining taluks within a few months. The biggest solar power generation unit has been established at Pavagada. Now, arrangements have been made to generate 600 MWs of solar power at this unit,’’ he said.

The government has taken measures to establish 124 power substations and 270 power substations were upgraded to ensure power supply without any hassles.

The government has sanctioned 82700 posts for KPTCL and Escoms. “Out of 33,000 vacancies, 21,511 posts were filled up.

Power man

There are 45,000 linemen and they will become power men in the future.

The minister has emphasised the need to recognize the services of low-rung employees and the need to upgrade their status in society.

“This is the reason why we have decided to call them as power men in future,’’ he said.

An award function will be held at Bengaluru Palace ground on October 28.

“One hundred and seventy-four engineers and linemen will be given 2017 Power Awards on the occasion,’’ he said.

Ganga Kalyana Scheme

The minister has said 72,500 irrigation pump sets were provided power for the benefit downtrodden people. Forty units of power is being supply free of cost for 27 lakh beneficiaries under Bhagya Jyothi and Kuteera Jyothi schemes.

Transformer banks

Transformer banks were established at 175 taluk centres and 142 transformer repair centres were set up.

“Till now,7.97 lakh illegal irrigation pump sets were regularized,’’ he said.

Coal scam

Expressing disappointment over BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s allegation of Rs 418 crore coal scam, he opined that a senior leader like Yeddyurappa should not have made such allegation.

“I am ready to face any kind of probe whether it is CBI or SIT. The whole deal was taken place in transparent manner to avoid power shortage,’’ he said.

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