Centre not responding to State's plea for power: DKS

 Energy Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday charged the Centre with politicising the State’s request to provide unallott ed power to Karnataka, which is facing severe power shortage.

Speaking to reporters after interacting with the party workers at the KPCC office, he said the Centre had not even bothered to respond to the State’s request for supplying 1,500 mega watt (MW) of unallotted power. “We have been begging the Centre to make arrangements for power corridors and give unallotted power to the State. It is not proper to indulge in politics on such issues,” he said.

The State is facing a shortage of about 1000 MW. Efforts are being made to buy power from all sources. The government has recently invoked Section 11 of the Karnataka Electricity Act that makes it mandatory for all the independent power producers operating in the State to supply power only to the State grid. Besides, the government is planning to buy power from the Tamil Nadu government, he said.

Asked about the Congress joining hands with the JD (S) led by his bete noire H D Kumaraswamy in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Shivakumar said he had nothing against the JD (S) leader and that he had high regards for him.