ICCI Protested The Powercut
The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Coimbatore, has protested the unscheduled power cuts and disconnection of power supply to factories for minor violation during peak hours by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). ICCI president Mahendra Ramdas said that the TNEB had enforced a 40 per cent cut on both maximum demand and energy for high tension industries. This was reduced to 30 per cent on May 26 and further to 20 per cent on June 14 citing the improved wind power generation as the reason. However, in reality the unscheduled power cuts had increased in the last 15 days. The factories were unable to use even the allocated units and in almost all factories the units had lapsed during July. The board was also not allowing grace period when the peak hour restrictions were enforced.
In many units, the maximum demand readings shot up due to technical problems. Due to this, the TNEB was resorting to power disconnection for 48 hours. The industries were already reeling under the impact of recession and raising costs and such disconnection would affect them to a greater extent. Hence, the Chamber appealed to the Electricity Minister, Arcot N Veerasamy, to instruct the field units to ensure uninterrupted power supply and allow allowance when enforcing peak hour power cuts besides ignoring minor violations.
