E-Paper
Govt beware! Power may cause waterloo
THE OTHER day my colleague called up from Kanpur and said excitedly, ?My performance will be much better this summer?. Failing to understand his impromptu remark, I simply asked, ?Is it a belated New Year resolution?. Pat came the reply, ?No, we have bought an inverter. Now I will get at least few hours sleep?. Strange, isn?t it? Successive governments in Independent India?s politically prime state have failed to meet two basic public demands for power and water. And they don?t hesitate in showing us the moon before every election.
THE OTHER day my colleague called up from Kanpur and said excitedly, “My performance will be much better this summer”. Failing to understand his impromptu remark, I simply asked, “Is it a belated New Year resolution”. Pat came the reply, “No, we have bought an inverter. Now I will get at least few hours sleep”.
Strange, isn’t it? Successive governments in Independent India’s politically prime state have failed to meet two basic public demands for power and water. And they don’t hesitate in showing us the moon before every election.
Fifty-nine years have passed since the country came under our own rulers. But they have failed to provide the basic needs. Many more years may go waste if the state governments continue to function so abysmally as they did in the last decade. UP reaching a saturation point on both the fronts, so crucial for overall development of the state, would remain a distant dream.
What’s wrong if agitated crowds in Varanasi organise Janata Adalat, announce a verdict that sends shock waves, hang effigies of the public representatives at the busiest Gowdholia crossing in the holy city?
People in Amethi get their power connections snapped. Why? They get bills, not electricity. In other parts of the state, angry crowds gherao power sub-stations, which disseminates less power, disconnects more.
Few might have failed to notice the expressionless face of the Jal Sansthan official in whose chamber people’s anger spilled as they displayed placards saying, “ Give us water or death”. Can one expect action from such an insensitive officer?
Ironically politicians in power and public representatives fail to fathom the growing anger of the masses over two basic requirements of water and power in the state. To taste the ire, they need to face elections in June. They are bound to get brickbats instead of votes. The poor voting percentage would reflect the public anger, annoyance with politicians.
The scenario of tomorrow is still worse? Demand is bound to accelerate, what with buying capacity of the ordinary man on the street improving and government diligently pursuing its rural electrification programme. Where would the power come from? The last power project added in Uttar Pradesh was in mid-1990s. Thereafter not a single MW has been added to the state’s generation capacity (written repeatedly in this column).
One really wonders how Mulayam can even promise better power supply in three years time when none of the projects, in the private or government sectors, are underway or near completion. One hears about Parichcha, power from Tehri. But one has to see it to believe it, so low is the credibility of the government and their managers. Imagine the government directs shopkeepers to pull their shutters down at eight in the evening, demands minimum use of air-conditioners, reduction in domestic use etc, but does not direct the ministers to use one air-conditioner instead of four to six in their offices. May be the chief minister would do better to study the number of air-conditioners that have gone up in his own official bungalow or office, or his ministers’ offices and their residences.
People would have appreciated, even accepted the government’s appeal for cutting use of electricity if the chief minister, his ministers and the leader of Opposition had taken the lead. After all shouldn’t the chief minister lead from the front? Are you listening Mr Mulayam Singhji?
