HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Monday slammed “fake leaders, and social media leaders” for spreading “lies” about power cuts. Vikramarka, who holds the power, said “some individuals” were trying to mislead the people by portraying scheduled short-duration takedowns for maintenance work as power cuts.
“The fact is the entire state is receiving quality power supply without any cut. The BRS is dreaming and hoping that there would be darkness in the state, and people are watching such fake claims and those making such claims, closely,” Bhatti said.
Providing statistics, he said that compared to December 2022, when an average of 200 million units (MU) a day were supplied, December 2023 saw 207.7 MU. From January 1, 2024, till January 28, the average supply was 242.43 MU, against 226 MU a day in the same period last year.
Bhatti said that ahead of the increase in demand for the summer, the government had entered into bilateral agreements with other states to bring 1,200 MW. “This exchange will see Telangana state provide power to the partner states when they need electricity,” he said.
Sources in the energy department said that some BRS workers, out to prove that were power cuts, were following the maintenance work schedules and going around buildings pasting hand-written posters claiming that lifts were not working because of power cuts. This fake news has spread such proportions that even BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao reacted saying things like “such is the wonderful governance of Congress & that too 2 months before the onset of summer,” they said.
Sources said that the maintenance outages used to go up to six hours during the BRS regime. “This year, for the first time, different units, those involved with trimming of tree branches, checking of power lines, and transformers, are working in a single unit and we have cut the down time to two hours,” sources said.
In some localities, the maintenance time could be going over by half-an-hour or so due to the amount of work. “There are absolutely no power cuts and the utilities are geared up for providing uninterrupted supply,” a senior energy department official said.
