Power Minister Piyush Goyal calls emergency meet, blames Congress, AAP for Delhi crisis

Power Minister Piyush Goyal calls emergency meet, blames Congress, AAP for Delhi crisis

New Delhi: Amidst continuing protests over the long power cuts in Delhi, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal has called an emergency meeting with the national capital's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and senior government officials at 10 am on Tuesday.

Goyal is expected to address the media after the meeting. Goyal blamed the Congress and the Aamd Aadmi Party for the crisis accusing them of misgovernance. "The citizens of Delhi are suffering the outages. My preliminary inquiry suggests that they have problems of transmissions and distribution, which has gone wrong for a decade," Goyal said. "It is unfortunate that the Congress and AAP who were in power longer than us, did nothing. It shows their weakness and ineptitude," he added.
When asked about Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's claims of no power cuts in VIP areas, Goyal said, "It's not about elite or commoners, I will ask the Delhi state officials to explain to me on what happened. We will give all support that the central government can give."
Protests had erupted across the city with residents in Seelampur protesting at a power station on Monday night. The situation has also taken a political turn with the Aam Aadmi Party protesting in front of Union Minister Harsh Vardhan's residence demanding that the Centre looks into the power crisis in the capital.
"We had come to remind him that their government is running Delhi as their government is in the Centre. There is a power crisis since the past 15 days and Delhi had never seen such a situation. We have requested him to look into the situation. But we could not meet him, he will meet us on Wednesday," AAP leader Manish Sisodia said.
Harsh Vardhan hit back at the AAP raising questions on its 49-day government in the national capital. "Ask Kejriwal what he did in 49 days and ask the Congress what they did in 15 years to fix transmission lines. Why is the media coming and asking me," he tweeted.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh too attacked the Narendra Modi government over power cuts. "In MP during my regime in Bhopal even CM's residence had the same power cuts as the others! Would PM consider? Heat and power cuts in Delhi! No power cuts in areas where people who matter live! Justified," Digvijaya asked on Twitter. The Delhi Congress had on Monday protested at the Chief Secretary's office.

Despite these protests, the situation is unlikely to change any time soon. According to authorities, a recent storm had damaged transmission lines and it will take another 20 days to put things in order. Delhi is expected to see a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius for yet another day on Tuesday. Making matters worse in the national capital are 6-hour long power cuts.

source:ibnlive

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