By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 22: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today expressed displeasure with excessive power cuts in the state. He was chairing a meeting of the Uttarakhand Power Department and the three Power Corporations at the Secretariat, here, today. Displeased with the excessive power cuts, he issued strict instructions to officials to find a solution to the power crisis at the earliest. He directed the top officers of UPCL, PTCUL and UJVNL, as well as Secretary, Power, to report to him and the Chief Secretary at the earliest about what could be done to solve the problem.
He also wanted to know why no meaningful effort had been made to resolve the power crisis at the very onset of the problem. He declared that the officials concerned ought to have made sincere efforts to resolve the crisis when the power shortage began in the industrial areas and other regions of the state.
He also took them to task for coming to the meeting not fully prepared and asked them not to repeat the mistake. He announced that, soon, another meeting would be held by him of the departments concerned and emphasised that they better come fully prepared with the plans on how to resolve the power crisis in the state.
Chief Minister Dhami reminded that Uttarakhand has many possibilities in the field of energy and tourism. He directed the officers to bring practicality in their work culture. The development of the state was the collective responsibility of all concerned, he stressed. All departments needed to work in coordination to solve the problems. The Chief Minister added that solar energy should also be aggressively promoted in the state. He said that complaints of power theft were being received from many areas of the state. He directed the officers that strict action be taken against the officers working in the areas from where such complaints of power theft were being received. He directed them to be aware of practical problems and difficulties being faced. The problems being faced should be resolved with utmost priority.
Present on this occasion were Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan, Secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram, Director, UREDA, and Additional Secretary Ranjana Rajguru, Additional Secretary Iqbal Ahmed, MD, UPCL, Anil Yadav, MD, UJVNL, Sandeep Singhal and other senior officers.
