Chennai, a city known for humidity and extreme summers, has turned into a city of nightmare with the unaddressed acute power shortage in the state of Tamil Nadu (TN). With a grave 4000 MW of power shortfall, 2 hour power cuts have haunted the residents of the state’s capital, for almost 75 days now. But the worst hit have been the rural areas with 4 to 8 hours of power cuts every day. With the people of the state staging protests and crying their woes out, the Jayalalitha led AIADMK government of Tamil Nadu has only turned a deaf ear.
The production rates from the rural areas have collapsed with the power crisis, making livelihood difficult for the micro, small and medium enterprises. Students have also been hit especially in this season of exams. As small commercial establishments are running into losses, the entire state seems to be on the verge of a crisis.
This opportunistic government, however, as usual has been using this power crisis in playing one of its dirty political games. Whether the power shortage is real or one that has been deliberately created by the government itself has also been questioned (given the fact that Tamil nadu is relatively a power surplus state). But what is definitely clear is that the government has used this as an excuse in sowing the illusion that the highly dangerous Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) will come to the rescue and thus putting the lives of thousands at risk. The government, backed by eminent figures like former President Abdul Kalam, have been indoctrinating the masses with this persistent misinformation. But the truth, however, is that KKNPP will not solve the present power crisis and a few reasons for this includes:
* Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant cannot produce electric energy soon after its commissioning.
* Even if the production starts by August this year, the plant can only function at 60 % (at the max) of its promised 2000 MW capacity, making it only 1200 MW.
* In the produced 1200 MW, 10%, i.e., 120 MW will be consumed by the plant itself leaving 1080 MW.
* With the centre’s order to the TN government to share 50 % of the generated power with Kerala state, the producer is left with 540 MW.
* Allowing 25 % loss on the account of transmission and distribution, the producer is left with 405 MW against a shortage of 4000 MW.
(Courtesy: http://dianuke.org )
Thus, the 10 % from the total shortfall can be achieved from KKNPP by overlooking the extreme inefficiencies of the entire project. These are some of the facts that the politically driven Tamil Nadu media and the mainstream corporate controlled media in India have neglected (or more correctly, deliberately withheld) to disclose to the public.
The state government of Tamil Nadu recently opened up opportunities to set up manufacturing units for MNCs like Ford, Hyundai and Nokia, although a problem of power shortfall is on the rise. While the governments has opened the gates for capital investments, where all the power for such energy intensive industries is going to come from is anyone’s guess. The luxuries of the urban world such as air conditioned malls, corporate houses and other such wasteful commercial enterprises have been a broad day light burglary of electric power from the ordinary people.
The much celebrated IPL (Indian Premier League) is yet another example of power wastage. With the state in deep agony of power shortage, flood lit matches have been consuming thousands of kilowatts of electricity every time a match is played. Where is the massive power supply to this coming from? This is the power that is being taken away from the students preparing for examinations, from the working people dependent on power supply to earn their daily bread and the people living in rural areas who are all suffering because of this. As an entertainer, IPL, is goaded as a success for the capitalist class. But in reality, it is highly insensitive on the part of both the government or the IPL promoters to even hold the game in Tamil Nadu in such a situation.
With the summer getting hotter day by day, the government has deliberately not taken any steps in tackling this crisis and refuses to come clean on the real state of affairs. While the power deprived people of the state are burning in fury, the situation is only being used as an opportunity by the government, both at the centre and the state, to rake up false claims in order to meet its ends.
Madhusudan S
Chennai
TN used to be power surplus, that is history, with growth in Industries and in population and lifestyle, we are deficit…. Sorry my friend, socialism should come when there is excess.