Power cuts cripple industry
KS Chawla

Ludhiana, September 28
The unprecedented power cuts in Punjab have crippled the industrial production of all sectors. The industry has already suffered heavy losses and some industrialists are thinking of shifting to other states. Steel industry in the state has been the worst sufferer as it got only 60-hour power supply per week during the past four months.

Enquiries by The Tribune have revealed that the power cuts began in June and have continued till date. The state did not witness much power cuts till May thanks to the parliamentary poll in the country.

The paddy load of power began in mid-June and the same has continued to burden the power supply due to failure of the monsoons and late sowing.

Even domestic feeders were subjected to 8 -10 hours of power cut daily to provide electricity to the tubewells. Tubewells in rural areas were supplied eight hours power daily till the first week of September. Now-a-days, the duration of power supply has been reduced to five hours.

From June onwards, there have been regular blackout days -one to three days compulsory off in a week - resulting in the crippling of industry. The induction and arc furnaces are the worst hit as these are subjected to a three-day compulsory weekly off. The general industry is still facing two-day weekly off.

Punjab State Electricity Board officials admit that induction and arc furnaces could be supplied only 60-hour power in a week minus the 21 hours of compulsory peak load restrictions in a week to the general industry.

Avtar Singh, general secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings, Ludhiana, said industrial production gets reduced to 40 per cent during the power cuts. Although Ludhiana is still the favourite hub of industrialists but they are mulling a shift to states where power supply is better.

Some of the engineering units have already moved to Himachal Pradesh because of availability of cheap power and other concessions in the income tax and state taxes announced by the NDA government.

Similarly, some industrialists of Mandi Gobindgarh - the steel city that has been hit by power cut of three-hour compulsory off in a week - have set up their units in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh taking advantage of the concessions announced by the Central government.

However, about 15 new furnace units were under erection in Gobindgarh despite power shortage and they had applied for power connections with the PSEB.

Enquiries by The Tribune show that much of Ludiana-based industry could not move out of the city as it is dependent upon ancillary units. For e.g., the hosiery industry is dependent on the woollen and spinning mills for raw materials.