Over mere load shedding, CM HDK sheds emotional outburst

BENGALURU: Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday threw a fit over the media interpretation of a Gulbarga electricity supply company (GESCOM) order stating “power management” as load shedding in the state.

On Thursday, after a detailed meeting with the energy department officials, Kumaraswamy targetted the media of trying to damage him than focus on the efforts of his coalition government to ease the pain of the farmers.

Pointing his right hand towards the camera, he said: “Look at this (the band aid applied after blood test). This is all because of the tension and pain your news is causing me. Without confirming the order with the department, a certain Kannada news channel beemed the news that I am pushing the state towards darkness. The illness bout I suffered yesterday was triggered by such news.”

Kumaraswamy went on to add that perhaps the news channels and media need to learn Kannada before trying to interpret government orders.

“Trying to damage my name and my government, you should first learn Kannada and not run the news as you please,” he commented.

Later, giving a detailed explanation on the power shortfall, the CM and energy minister said the government has taken stock of the situation and assessed a shortfall of only 300 to 400 MW.

“The power supply vis-a-vis demand has been fulfilled with the assistance of the NPC, solar and wind power availability to complement our Hydro power generating units. We all know that coal availability has fallen short for our thermal units and this is being compensated by increasing our power production marginally from our Hydro power plants,” said the CM.

Kumaraswamy said the 300 to 400 MW of shortfall is in fact only towards the evening, between 5 pm to 10 pm, when there is no solar power generation possibility.

The CM said repeated talks with the centre have yielded promises and this has to be accepted at present.

“Our chief secretary even visited Delhi on Wednesday and spoke with the coal ministry. We have been assured that the coal production will be ramped up and the railways ministry will even increase the number of rakes required to transport coal to our power plants,” he said.

Kumaraswamy said despite all the problems, the government is not going to have any load shedding in the state and will continue to supply power at the present rate of 16 to 24 hours across Karnataka.