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Journalism of Courage
Coming down heavily on the state government’s advocating free power to farmers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today made it clear that such a populist measure was detrimental to the progress of the nation.
Addressing a large public gathering at Jhakri after dedicating the 1,500-MW Nathpa Jhakri hydro-power project to the nation today, Manmohan Singh said, ‘‘free power would make it impossible for the country to achieve its power goals, and it was time to convey this message to the people.’’ The PM was equally scathing in his indictment of power boards and said they needed to improve. ‘‘If electricity boards continue to make losses, the government will never be able to reach its power goals,’’ he added.
The government, the PM declared, was duty bound to provide electricity to every house in the country in the next four years under its Bharat Nirman Programme.
The programme envisages potable drinking water in every house, improved road connectivity to all villages, better irrigation facilities, and a high standard of education and health facilities. He said the Centre will help the state government generate an additional 10,000 MW of power in the next few years. ‘‘We hope Himachal Pradesh would help us meet the power requirements of other states which are facing a crisis,’’ he said, adding that the Nathpa Jhakri project was a dream of former PM Rajiv Gandhi who had laid its foundation stone. Earlier, Union Power Minister P M Sayeed said the country has a power potential of 1.84 lakh MW and the government had embarked on an ambitious plan to harness 50,000 MW of hydro-electric power in a phased manner.
CM Virbhadra Singh said the state had a hydel power potential of 21,000 MW, of which only about 6,000 MW had been tapped so far.Member of Parliament Ambika Soni, Anand Sharma, Power Minister Vidya Stokes and a host of VIP dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
There were some embarrassing moments at the inauguration when the PM kept pressing the button to draw the curtains but that failed to work. At last, one of the officials unveiled the curtain to complete the ceremony.
