‘Overdrawing by neighbouring states causing power cuts in Delhi’

With several parts of the national capital reeling under frequent power cuts, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit blamed overdrawing of power from the northern grid by neighbouring states for load shedding in the city.

“Load shedding is taking place because of overdrawing of power by neighbouring states from the northern grid,” Dikshit said when asked about frequent outages in several areas of the city with durations ranging from one to four hours. “In some areas load shedding is taking place because of local faults also,” Dikshit said. In April, the chief minister Sheila Dikshit had written a letter to union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde requesting him to ask states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab not to overdraw power from the northern grid. In a recent meeting with officials of such states, Delhi's power secretary Rajendra Kumar had requested them not to overdraw power beyond their allocated quota saying it put a lot of pressure on the grid.