CHENNAI: Electricity Minister C T R Nirmalkumar on Monday assured the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the state government would release a white paper on the performance and current condition of Tangedco in two days.
His assurance came following a heated debate in the Assembly on the frequent power cuts across Tamil Nadu during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor for his address to the House.
Raising the issue, Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin criticised the government over the recurring power cuts. Taking a swipe at the chief minister, he said Perambur, the CM’s Assembly constituency, had become the “number one constituency” in the state for power outages.
Responding to it, Nirmalkumar said the government had been publishing daily data on power interruptions through an online dashboard, along with the reasons for each outage.
He said the Tangedco was burdened with debts of around Rs 2.5 lakh crore and claimed that there had been no major infrastructure development in the sector during the previous regime. The minister said the forthcoming white paper would contain details about the department’s financial position, infrastructure status and staff strength.
According to Nirmalkumar, around 70,000 posts are lying vacant in the electricity department. To tackle unexpected power outages, the government has formed 125 special teams and engaged around 500 contract workers to carry out repair work.
He said officials were monitoring outages and restoring supply as quickly as possible. Action had also been taken against those involved in stealing fuse carriers and damaging power infrastructure.
However, former electricity minister and DMK MLA V Senthil Balaji rejected the government’s claims. He said power supply remained stable during the previous five years and that steps were taken every year to meet the rising electricity demand.
Senthil Balaji added that nearly 90,000 transformers were purchased during the DMK regime, and several new power projects were launched. He further recalled Minister Nirmalkumar’s earlier statement that construction of more than 100 sub-stations was also taken up at a cost of around Rs 10,000 crore, and added that this was initiated by the previous DMK government.
He urged the government to hold regular review meetings with senior officials and focus on improving power distribution instead of blaming the previous administration.