Oppn stages walkout over MSEB tariff, loadshedding

The members also expressed their annoyance over the statewide loadshedding resorted to by MSEB twice and at times, thrice, in a week. Padamsingh Patil pointed out that there was a yawning gap of 1,000 MW to 1,200 MW between the generation and demand for electricity in the State and hence the MSEB had decided to impose loadshedding twice a week. He said the Government was helpless in the case and that loadshedding would continue.

When asked why the Government was not fully utilising the power generated by Enron, the minister said that whenever the Government needed power during peak demand, power supplied by Enron was being utilised. However, he stated that during lean demand period, it was not feasible to use Enron power as it was more expensive than that generated by MSEB.

The members demanded more concessions to farmers, pointing out that because of power failures, farmers were not able to irrigate their fields, resulting in low yield. However, the minister expressed his inability in meeting the demands of the Opposition who staged a walkout from the Assembly, shouting slogans against the Government for its "anti-farmer" policies.

In a written reply to the calling attention motion, the minister stated that the cost of generating electricity was Rs 2.25 per unit whereas the income from agricultural consumers was only 25 paise per unit. He further stated that the installed capacity for generating power in the State was 13,536 MW and the average availability of power was 10,039 MW. He stated that since the peak demand for power was about 11,309, there was a shortfall of 1,000 to 1,200 MW.