As Madhya Pradesh struggles with rising summer temperature, frequent power outages have only added to the problem. These frequent power cuts have once again brought Kamal Nath government under fire, adding more problems to the government, barely 6 months in power. Problems for Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath are spiraling and seem to be poised to trouble the CM in times to come. Earlier multiple raids on close aides of Kamal Nath, where income tax department had recovered crores of rupees had rocked the political circles in the state.
The worst affected are the rural regions, where people have also been struggling to fight with rising summer temperatures. With the beginning of the new academic sessions, students in rural Madhya Pradesh are also suffering. According to ground reports, around one to ten hours of unannounced power cuts are rampant in the state.
The power outages have become so frequent that even famous poet, Rahat Indori had to take to twitter to call out for some relief, Rahat Indori had tweeted:
आजकल बिजली जाना आम हो गया है, आज भी पिछले तीन घंटों से बिजली नहीं है….. गर्मी है – रमज़ान भी हैं….. @mppkvvclindore में कोई फ़ोन नहीं उठा रहा…. कुछ मदद करें….@iPriyavratSingh @OfficeOfKNath
— Dr. Rahat Indori – forever (@rahatindori) June 2, 2019
“Nowadays power outages are a norm, even today there is no power since last three hours…its hot..it’s also the month of Ramazan…nobody is receiving calls at the electricity board (MPPKVVCL)..Please provide some help”
Ex-Madhya Pradesh CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also taken aim at Kamal Nath Government over power outages in the state and dubbed it as Madhya Pradesh returning to ‘Bantadhar yug’(destructive phase). He had tweeted:
अप्रिय स्थिति से बचने के लिए आयोग द्वारा सभी स्थानों पर जनरेटर की व्यवस्था करना ज़रूरी है क्योंकि बिजली जाना तो तय है, स्वयं मुख्यमंत्री जब वोट डालने गए तो बिजली चली गई थी!
कांग्रेसी नेता भी फिर यही बोलेंगे कि देखो इसके पीछे भाजपा नेताओं का षड्यंत्र है, शिवराज यह सब करवा रहा है!
— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (मोदी का परिवार ) (@ChouhanShivraj) May 22, 2019
These comments by Rahat Indori and Shivraj Singh Chouhan only substantiate the reservations of many who fear that the state has been going back to the days when multiple hours of power cuts were a norm.
Earlier CM Kamal Nath was also caught in an embarrassing situation, when he and his family reached a polling booth in Chhindwara to cast their votes during the general election, where they were met with another outage. Nath was with his wife, Alka Nath, and daughter-in-law, Priya Nath in a booth in Shikarpur village (Saunsar Assembly area). Left with no choice, the family had to use mobile phone flash lights to go through the process. Kamal Nath had faced frequent power cuts during campaigning and had alleged conspiracy. Joining in the blame game was also Madhya Pradesh minister Surendra Singh Baghel who had alleged these power cuts to be a conspiracy by the BJP and power companies to defame the Madhya Pradesh government. The state government has also been venting out its anger on the employees of the energy department, over the past few months a large number of employees and officials of the energy department been suspended.
In the rising summer temperatures eliminating power outages should ideally be one of the top agendas in the state, however, like on many other fronts Congress has decided to just shift the blame to the BJP and allege conspiracies. With the state government just a few months in charge, inefficiencies have already seemed to have gripped the state. With decreasing patience of the voters over non-delivery of promises made by the Congress has led to difficult situations for Congress in LS elections where Congress just managed to win on a single PC out of the total 29 in the state. Many believe that Congress neither has the will nor the capacity to deliver on promises and the promises made by the party were nothing more than electoral stunts. This blatant neglect of the people struggling due to high summer temperature coupled with frequent power outages are sure to add links to the long chain of challenges the Kamal Nath government is already facing in the state.