This may be patently tendentious, but it is becoming more and more difficult to counter it. The way West Bengal is once again suffering long spells of load shedding is only one example of the mindless ways its administration is run by the Left Front. It is hard to believe that only a decade or so ago when Dr Sankar Sen was the Power Minister, the state not only suffered no power cuts, but even exported surplus power to Assam, Meghalaya and the national grid.

Dr Sen fell foul of the manipulative ways of a powerful private sector power generating company which received total support from the state government headed by Mr. Jyoti Basu and his Ministers, So he had to go. At present he continues to act as a consultant to many state government and power authorities in India. He has turned down repeated requests from present Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to supervise in some capacity the present power situation in West Bengal. A case of once bitten, twice shy, much to the detriment of the state's economic interests.

However, it does not require Dr Sen's calibre to understand what plagues the state power department at present. A lack of minimum advance power planning is the main reason.

The average power shortfall in West Bengal on a normal working day these days ranges from 700 to 1000 megawatts. During weekends and holidays, it is around 400 megawatts.

The present daily requirement is around 6100 megawatts and when all systems and units are working normally, the generation is around 5700 megawatts. Over 90% of the generation is thermal, involving the burning of huge amounts of coal, which directly contributes to global warming.

Most units again, are old, with low plant load factors that barely exceeded 60/62%, in comparison with 80-85% in most other states. This has always been the bane of power generation in West Bengal. Basu used to lose his temper whenever anyone asked him why the PLF was so low in West Bengal, was it because of poor work culture?

On top of this, there are always one or two units going out of order during summer(although all units are routinely rested and repaired during the winter months so that they run normally in summer!).

Broadly this is the story one reads in the press year after year and in 2010 it has been if anything, slightly worse. The state blames the railways for not allotting enough rakes to carry coal, and the Coal India for supplying poor quality coal. The Railways and Coal India authorities deny such charges, pointing out that other states use the same coal without complaints about quality or rake allotment. Instead they point to the rampant looting of coal by politically backed anti socials in West Bengal from the wagons.

Even worse than the actual shortfall is the nonchalant attitude of the bureaucrats and officials who seemingly do not care what happens to consumers. Some even pointed to Maharashtra, where the shortfall was of the order of 6000 megawatts daily. They forgot to mention that Maharashtra generated over 10,000 megawatts daily and had to meet a demand of 16,000 megawatts in summer! Although West Bengal and Maharashtra were running almost parallel in terms of economic development till the early sixties of the last century, Maharashtra left Bengal far behind , as strikes, blockages, bandhs and other forms of disruption blighted the local industrial scenario.

Chief Minister Bhattacharjee until about 2007, claimed that West Bengal was “exporting” power! Then he was misguided by departmental officials who advised him no to go in for more power plants, because several major new steel units were all planning to build their own captive power plants, which could even supply power to the state. There would be more than enough available to meet the annual rising demand of between 350 to 400 megawatts.

Post Singur and Nandigram, with the state government badly bungling in both areas, the situation changed thoroughly since 2007. It was difficult to acquire land for any project, including the proposed major power plant at Katwa, Burdwan. Steel plants could not secure land. There was no question of setting up any captive power plants which could produce between 300 to 800 megawatts daily. Meanwhile, from 2007 to the present day, demand grew by over 1000 megawatts, in the natural course.

And until the first quarter of next year, there will be no addition to the generation of power in the state. New unit at Santaldih will begin generating 250 units then, but that is all. It will not reduce the overall deficit by much. The long awaited Sagardighi plant will also not be operative very soon, there having been little preliminary work.

The situation, bad enough at present, is likely to turn critical in the next 2 or 3 years. One local daily estimates that without any new generation, with the normal demand of 400 megawatts or so expected to continue and the anticipated load of rural power supply of around 700 megawatts daily to be added, the state is likely to be confronted by a deficit of around 2000 megawatts by 2014!

Bhattacharjee understands of the present crisis? Addressing his cabinet some days ago, he pointed out that of late there was hardly any load shedding for a few days, as steps were taken. The situation would improve during the monsoon and the shortfall was around 300-400 megawatts only. His colleagues protested, pointing out that load shedding was a daily occurrence in Kolkata and his report was misleading, to say the last. The deficit on working days was 1000 megawatts, nothing less. Bhattacharjee sat silent and then walked out. (IPA)