Give petrol, take power - Narendra Modi's offer to Manmohan

Ahmedabad/New Delhi, Aug 2: Chief Minister

led Gujarat government seems to have come up with an extra-ordinary offer to the

government.

Following the biggest grid failure in the country for two consecutive days on Monday, Jul 30 and Tuesday, Jul 31, the state government has offered to provide more power to the national grid in exchange for cheaper petrol.

Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel on Thursday, Aug 2 has been quoted as saying, "Today, Gujarat can give 2000 MW of power to the northern states if the centre gives us support. That is the only short term solution that I see."

Almost 600 million people, more than half the country's population, faced severe hardship when the northern and eastern power grids collapsed simultaneously just after 1 pm on Tuesday.

Nearly 500 trains were halted all of a sudden. Vehicular movement was also affected. Traffic came to a grinding halt in many cities across north and east India.

After the biggest blackout, which also has been termed as the world's worst-ever electricity collapse, Modi slammed the Prime Minister and his government while tweeting, "Pradhan Mantri ji, 60 cr people & 19 states are in darkness. Country wants to know is there any coalition dharma you are following here too?"

Slamming UPA II government, the Gujarat CM also stated, "With poor economic management UPA has emptied pockets of common man; kept stomachs hungry with inflation & today pushed them into darkness!"

According to sources, over 8000 MW of electricity was generated in the state in the past decade. Currently, 15,906 MW is the generation capacity of the state and the capacity is much higher than the average requirement of about 12,000 MW electricity.

OneIndia News