The Governor’s address to the MP Assembly today, spelling out the new government’s priorities, had two thrust areas that won the BJP the elections — power and roads.On roads, Chief Minister Uma Bharati could simply carry over from her predecessor Digvijay Singh, ensuring the plans initiated are implemented thoroughly. On power though, an immediate recovery has been ruled out.Shortly after taking over, Uma admitted that the power crisis is as much a distribution problem as that of shortage. While the shortage of power can be remedied quickly, with the Centre and states such as Gujarat and Chhattisgarh willing to help, distribution would have to be rehauled.Thanks to the neglect of the rural supply system due to the free power regime, there is no supply network in place to cover the entire state at one go even if power is available. Uma has 100 days to show results as per the Prime Minister’s request — her promise being power for students before examinations and for farmers at the time of harvest. With the deadline at the back of her mind, the CM had called a meeting of senior personnel from the engineering staff in Bhopal over the weekend.She has undertaken to submit a White Paper on the ‘‘crisis-ridden power sector’’ soon, along with a time-bound action plan on remedial measures. She said the immediate task is to reduce the gap between power demand and supply within three months through an action plan to help students and farmers, who need power for the ongoing rabi farming.Ahead of the meet though, a similar meeting was held by members of the sangathan, a parallel unit including RSS and BJP workers. Since then, Power Minister Gauri Shankar Shejwar has been in contact with senior MPSEB officials. Farmers in several parts of Malwa are up in arms over the lack of power and if it is not provided to them over the next week, they stand to lose the crop.
