BHUBANESWAR: Even as growing public anger against unscheduled power cuts forced the state government to take stock of the situation, Opposition Congress and BJP staged demonstrations here on Monday demanding the ouster of energy minister Pratap Deb over the issue.
Earlier in the day, members of Congress’ students wing gathered outside the minister’s residence holding lanterns and hand fans to protest erratic power supply across the state. The demonstrators tried to scale the gate of the minister’s residence, but were prevented from doing so by police personnel deployed at the spot. They hurled tomatoes at the residence of the minister.
Accusing him of having miserably failed to discharge his duty, president of the state unit of students Congress Yasir Nawaz demanded the energy minister should be removed from the cabinet for his poor performance. Referring to the recent statement of the minister that power cuts are a result of weak infrastructure, Nawaz questioned what has the state government done during the last 23 years to strengthen power infrastructure.
In the evening, a large number of BJP activists staged a rally at Sishu Bhavan square holding lanterns and shouting slogans against the state government and Deb for erratic power supply. Police stopped the activists who were proceeding towards Naveen Nivas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
President of Bhubaneswar district BJP unit Babu Singh said the party wants a reply from the chief minister on what steps the state government has planned to deal with the situation.
Deb left red-faced
Power outage of around half-an-hour at a function to pay homage to those who lost their lives in the train tragedy at Bahanaga left Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb red-faced. As the venue went powerless, Deb could be seen wiping his face with a handkerchief. A generator was arranged to restore power at the event.
Min’s house in dark
Bhubaneswar: Minister of State for Tourism Aswini Patra was among the scores of people affected by kalbaisakhi which plunged the state capital into darkness on June 8. The minister told media persons here power supply to his official residence was snapped the entire night and was restored the next morning.