Perturbed over the acute crisis prevailing in coal town Dhanbad as well as six other districts of the state including Bokaro, Giridih, Chatra, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Ramgarh, a delegation of Dhanbad traders today met Rajesh Rajwar, executive engineer of Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited and submitted a memorandum to him. The crisis has been further accentuated due to the increase in load shedding hours since Saturday to 12 to 18 hour

The protesters, led by state GST Council Member and former vice president of Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce and Industry Surendra Arora, discussed in detail the problems being faced by the traders like increased overhead expenses in terms of diesel generator operation etc.

The delegation also threatened to stage a day-long silent Dharna after a week if a solution to the problem is not worked out.

“The normal life in coal town be it the online education of children or treatment of patients in hospitals, water supply etc has been badly affected due to the long hours of power failure and extra diesel expense is proving another blow to the traders who are already reeling under the impact of covid induced recession,” said Arora.

“When queries were made to the JBVNL offices about power failures we are told about the load shedding being carried out by JBVNL but the fact remains that the bill by the traders is paid of JBVNL and not to DVC so JBVNL should be accountable for lack of service to the power subscribers,” said Arora.

Md Sohrab, the former president of Purana Bazar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, meanwhile raised the issue of ill effects of long hours of power cuts on industrial production. “At one hand all kinds of steps are being taken to attract investors to invest in Jharkhand but on the other hand the government is not taking any concrete measure to resolve the power crisis situation as the continuous power supply is primary requirement for any industry," he said.

Notably, DVC launched around 6 hours of load shedding since December 6 last year in order to realize its pending dues worth around Rs 2100 crore on account of power supply to JBVNL and load shedding was gradually increased to 10 hours and later to 12-18 hours since last Saturday.

The JMM leaders on the other hand threatened to stop the supply of coal and water to DVC operating its power plants from Jharkhand.

Electric grid substation unveiled in Bokaro

State Education minister Jagannath Mahto today inaugurated 33/11 KVA Power grid substation at Taranari area of Chandrapura about 30 km from Bokaro district headquarters in presence of a host of officials and common villages.

Speaking during the occasion, Mahto said that the substation inaugurated today as part of ongoing series of development work being carried out by the state government will ensure supply of electricity to rural areas of Chandrapura block and will help in providing irrigation facilities for the farmers.

Jharkhand Minister, Jagannath Mahato (in blue check coat) inaugurating the new Electricity Sub Station at Taranari under Chandrapura Block of Bokaro District today Gautam Dey

Jay Kishore Prasad, Deputy Development Commissioner of Bokaro who was also present at the site along with the minister, urged the farmers of the area to make effective utilization of the electricity for their progress and informed people that during the recently organized Aapke Adhikar Aapki Sarkar Aap Ke dwar initiative more than the 80% complaints of the people of remote areas who could reach to the government office to seek redressal of their complaints or issues have been solved.