They are not even getting a couple of hours of electricity and water. In Nawada some people have resorted to fast-unto-death to press their demand for the normal supply of power and water. The power and water crises have its reverberations in the state Asembly on Monday with the Opposition RJD raising slogans against the government.

In Nawada and Ara too people are directly targeting the chief minister Nitish Kumar and threatened that they would not pay power bill as there is no electricity supply even for an hour. “How is it that the electric supply is normal during the election time and in Patna during Bihar Diwas,” one of them yelled.

Local administration in both these districts seem to be lacking in providing alternative arrangement. Nawada municipality has only two water tanks. Many of the hand pumps in these towns are not working compounding the miseries of the people.

It needs to be mentioned that Nawada gets 18 MW of power against the demand of 32-38 MW while Ara is getting around 20 MW against the demand of 35-40 MW.

Though the state government is passing the blame on the NTPC for the power crisis the fact is that its own power plants in Kanti and Barauni are hardly producing any electricity.

The state capital, Patna, which gets 400 MW of power against the demand of 550 is also facing acute power cut at many places. Though it is near to Ganga yet many localities are going without water for days together.

One example is sufficient to explain the state of affairs. The Jakkanpur police station in Patna has to function in candle light as there is no generator and invertor in it.

Comment

comments...

In the last Bihar times conclave,we heard from respected Dy CM of Bihar Mr. Sushil Modi about the problem Bihar govt is facing in getting the coal linkage from Center apparently due to Political differences.
I had some questions and suggestions to make to him but alas we did not have Question and Answer session.
Why don't we come up with a new policy where the whole generation,transmission and distribution is given to few private parties.Govt can provide them the incentives in terms of easy credit,no tax etc so that they get a viable business model.
A private player like Tatas and Reliance would not face the political issues with central government and also they would be able to purchase power from the private power companies that are setting up power plant.
My belief is that if we privatize this whole thing,it would bring efficiency in entire value chain of generation,transmission and distribution.Especially there would not be any power theft and power loss due to poor maintenance of transmission lines .
As far as water shortage is concerned,again this needs to be tackled through a private public partnership .
This is the model which another democratic country like US is following and there we don't hear much about power shortage or water shortage there .
These are essential items for which people will be willing to pay and if some can't afford then govt should compensate the utility company providing the same at reduced rate to the needy.
Deepak Kumar
General Manager , SAP Operations
Momentive Performance Materials

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to ask question from people of ARA, Bhagalpur or All Bihar how much they are honest to pay the Electricity Bill. They will Purchase UPS. They will buy diesel for Generator but not pay electricity Bill honestly. So Rome not Build in one day. If All Binaries want to proper supply of Electricity then be honest to use of Electricity. Specially from rural area people not paying electricity bill & selling electricity wire also. How can you expect 24 hour electricity in Bihar. Nitishji will not generate electricity by his pocket.
Alok S Ray
Baroda-390007

=-------------------------------------------------------

There was a story in Bihar Times sometime back that Bihar would be a surplus power state by 2015. This announcement was made by the energy minister or Dy CM. Is it possible in current scenario. How our politicians befool the innocent people. Its high time to take task of our decision makers.

Jawed

-------------------------

We fail to understand that what initiative this govt. took in last six years to meet power deficit in Bihar. Now its too much and peoples anger is silling over streets of Bihar. Tamashabadi bahut ho gaya............ Nitish ji kucch jariye. nahi to Bihar ki hanata hai ye..

Vikas Singh