Ms Mamata Banerjee, had once accused the former Left Front government for its inadequate policy measures to prevent regular flooding in parts of West Bengal.
“The floods are man-made,” Ms Banerjee, who was then the leader of the Opposition in the State, had said. Exactly a decade later, Ms Banerjee, now the Chief Minister, may be accused on the same grounds for the recent severe power crisis.
On assuming office in May, she had turned down proposals from the State-controlled power utilities — catering to more than two-thirds of the 1.15-crore electricity subscribers in West Bengal — to seek tariff revision for recovering the sharp rise in costs, primarily the cost of coal.
The generation utility, for example, was forced to supply power at an average tariff of Rs 2.38 a unit, nearly 60 paise less than what was required.
The result was catastrophic. Having incurred a cash loss of approximately Rs 250 crore a month since March this year, the state-controlled power sector is now facing an acute cash crunch to pay for requisite coal, leading to lower generation and huge shortfalls often ranging up to approximately 1,000 MW — which is nearly a quarter of the peak demand for electricity in West Bengal.
In response, the state administration is apparently trying out stop-gap measures like minor fund support (Rs 60 crore) to clear coal dues (approximately Rs 550 crore) or bridging the revenue gap by loans. The inadequacy of Ms Banerjee's policies has also affected the life of nearly 25 lakh subscribers of Kolkata, catered to by the private sector operator CESC Ltd.
While CESC has escalated tariff keeping in tune with the cost push, the dependence of the company on state utilities in meeting the peak shortfall has impacted life in the city. Average shortfall in Kolkata went up to 150 MW — nearly 8-10 per cent of peak demand — earlier this week.
Regional situation
Similar to West Bengal, the crisis in the other Eastern States cannot be linked to the national coal availability issues. Bihar, for example, simply lacked the basic minimum power infrastructure for all these decades and is now working overtime for creating the same.
The State has a mere 100-odd MW of generation capacity and is still dependent on Central sector to meet the demand in cities like Patna.
Despite being a major source of coal, Jharkhand has a few archaic State-controlled generation units, with larger parts of the State dependent on Central supplies.
The exceptions are Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
From a power-starved State, Chhattisgarh has now become power surplus banking on its coal reserves. Orissa sources nearly 60-70 per cent of electricity through hydel sources.