Hello and welcome once again to Electrical India. There has been some not-so-good news for the Modi government in the recently-held bye-elections and also the two Lok Sabha seats. Of late, there have been advertisements on various radio and television channels about 100 per cent electrification of villages across the country. I have in my previous notes mentioned how statistics can be displayed in different ways as per ones convenience and liking. The way the government calculates the 100 per cent electrification of villages is itself faulty.
This is an election year and one can expect many more of such statistics. That’s been the case government after governments. If the entire country is electrified, as is claimed by the government, then obviously no government in the future should talk of electrifying the villages. Mark my words! That will not be the case. In future too, there will be discussions and claims on electrifying our villages. Be that as it may, its one thing to have power for all on paper and second to have quality and consistent power. In short, power round-the-clock.
I was in Chennai last week and there was power failure in a big star hotel and gensets started immediately. The place from where this publication, strangely on the power industry, is published – Navi Mumbai, sees frequent power fluctuation and failures. It could be due to various reasons ranging from cable fault, cable cut due to different agencies working, transformer failure, load shedding etc. But the fact of the matter is how can industry function if such a situation exists even in a city let alone rural areas. Does it not cause unwanted pollution to the already-polluted cities because of use of diesel gensets? Same was the case in Dhule where there is power cuts quite regularly. This is a BJP-ruled state. Things are no different in several internal places in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar etc, where there could be power shortage due to less availability of coal. Whatever, be the case, ‘Make in India’, irrespective of the party that rules, needs more power and continuous supply of power without any outages.
To end, I would like to quote from Brian Min’s book, “Power and the Vote: Elections and Electricity in the Developing world.” Indeed, the real test will be whether the government can ensure reliable supplies to the people, rather than simply taking power cables into people’s homes. Hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we have in bringing this to you. Please send in your comments to me on miyer@charypublications.in
Publisher & Editor-In-Chief
