State Leader of Opposition Upvendu Adhikari went to Salt Lake Vidyut Bhawan and protested against load shedding. Now the state’s Electricity Minister Arup Biswas has spoken openly about this.
We always talk about constructive criticism. Yesterday in Debra of Medinipur, how the electric pole fell in Kalbaisakhi storm. He showed the pictures one after the other. But we thank the staff that they are doing the repairs promptly. At some places there is a temporary power failure. We mean they had 80 lakh customers when the Left Front was in government. Now our customers are 2 crore 33 lakh. The maximum requirement in the remaining period was 4 thousand 85 MW. Today we have a maximum of 9 thousand 200 MW. On April 18, we set an all-time record. I broke that record on 8th June. There has never been such a demand since independence. I have done two units in Sagardighi.
Regarding the cost of electricity, the minister said that the unit in Assam is 8 taka 14 paise. In Uttar Pradesh, its per unit is 7 taka 54 paise. And 7 taka 12 paise in Bengal. We are at number 11.
The minister said, when the BJP’s central government gives recognition, what does it give? Bengal got first place in power generation, we lost many people. Mamta Banerjee’s government has lost a lot. We have enough electricity. There is no shortage anywhere. Somewhere there is a mechanical fault, and somewhere there is a power failure due to nature. BJP, CPM want to bring back load shedding but present government has removed the word load shedding.
At the same time, the Power Minister said, I am asking everyone to buy ten ACs instead of one. Not one washing machine, buy 5 washing machines, install 10 TVs, no problem, just increase the load. Buy ten ACs, just increase the load. Tell our officials to increase immediately. Just keep in mind that some people may not have a problem with either.
At the same time, the minister kept saying again and again, there is no shortage of electricity anywhere in our country. He said, there was no work culture here. I brought it back. Here now work is done from 10 am to 5 pm. State Energy Minister Arup Biswas clarified.