Mah opposition blast govt over loadshedding

Mumbai, Feb 10 (UNI) The Opposition Shiv Sena-BJP in Maharashtra today came down heavily against the state government for the increased loadshedding schedule in the state in the recent months.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari in a statement issued here today said Chief MInister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil and power minister Dilip Valse-Patil should be honoured with 'Maharashtra Dushan' (Maharashtra disgrace) award for taking the state to the dark age.

Blasting the government for its failure to generate even a single MW of electricity in the last seven years, Mr Gadkari charged that it had filed a false affidavit in the High Court a few years ago that the state had sufficient electricity and there was no need for additional power generation.

He castigated the state government for false display of MoUs with power producers to tide over the power shortage a few years ago.

''If the state government can file false affidavit in the court, then what expectations can people have from them,''he asked.

Ridiculing the Chief Minister's attempts to woo foreign investors in the state, Mr Gadkari asked,''who would come to invest here, if there is no electricity for a period of 18 hours daily.'' Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Ramdas Kadam, who toured Umred, Kalmeshwar and Ramtek areas of Vidarbha in the last two days, where the police fired bullets at locals demanding electricity, lambasted the government for killing its citizens when they raise genuine demands for electricity or water.

He said most areas of Vidarbha including Umred, Ramtek and Kalmeshwar were in darkness for almost throughout the day.''This is affecting the educational prospects of students studying for their board exams scheduled next month. The state government should address this serious issue immediately,'' he demanded.

Mr Kadam said two people were killed and 12 injured in the police firing in Umred and demanded a judicial probe into the firing. ''If the government cannot provide relief to the common man, it has no moral right to continue in office,''he charged.

Referring to the Umred incident, he said the Executive Engineers of Umred behaved rudely with the locals who had taken out a march protesting against frequent loadshedding which provoked them to go beserk.

UNI