Delhi power crisis: Cong hits back at Goyal

Goyal had blamed the 15-year rule of Sheila Dikshit govt for power crisis

Congress today came down hard on Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal hours after he blamed the 15-year rule of Sheila Dikshit for poor power transmission network and long outages in the city.

In a counter attack, Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said it was the responsibility of the NDA government and Goyal to resolve the power crisis as the city was under central rule and claimed that the Dikshit government had ensured round-the-clock electricity supply.

"Piyush Goyal cannot run away from his responsibilities by blaming the Sheila Dikshit government. Our government had managed the power sector efficiently. We brought reform into the power sector. Instead of addressing the crisis, Goyal has targeted us," Lovely told a press conference.

Areas across the city have been facing blackouts of up to six hours. The Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL), a Delhi government utility, is yet to repair all the transmission lines damaged by the devastating storm that hit the city 11 days ago.

Earlier, after a meeting with Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Goyal said that there was no policy initiatives in the last 10-12 years to modernise Delhi's power transmission network due which the city has been reeling under outages.

"Delhi is under central rule and the LG is the representative of the Centre. So it is primary responsibility of the Narendra Modi government to ensure power supply in Delhi. Instead of doing that, they are attacking the Congress," Lovely said.

The DPCC chief also attacked AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal saying the situation deteriorated as the AAP government did not prepare a summer action plan to meet the growing power demand in the city.

"Why no summer action plan was prepared by Arvind Kejriwal when he was chief minister. We had controlled power crisis during our time. But the AAP government did nothing," said Lovely.

Areas across the city faced blackouts of up to six hours today also as a number of power transmission lines damaged in the storm on May 30 are yet to be fully repaired.

Congress MLAs and ex-MLAs yesterday had locked Delhi Chief Secretary S K Srivastava in his room for over one-and-half hours, demanding immediate improvement in supply of power and water in the national capital.