NCP to raise power cut issue in House

BHUBANESWAR: The State unit of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will raise the issue of power cut in urban and rural areas of Orissa in the winter session of the Assembly which started on Friday. It has demanded tabling of a white paper on the power situation in the House.The NCP Legislature Party (NCPLP) which met here also decided to raise several other important issues. NCPLP leader Amar Prasad Satpathy said that people of rural areas had been experiencing more than three hours of unscheduled power cut daily during the last several weeks.Satpathy said that once a power surplus State, Odisha has now become power deficit. The white paper should have details on generation of power in the State, the peak requirement and measures taken by the Government to remedy the situation. He said that unless the Government took immediate steps to correct the situation, industrialisation programme will suffer.The party will also raise non-payment of compensation to the farmers who suffered losses in the drought and flood. There is a big gap between the announcements and their implementation by the Government, he said. The NCP leader also alleged that many schemes suffer from shoddy implementation   because of staff crunch. The land scandals in Puri and other places will be raised.Criticising the State Government for the deteriorating law and order situation, Satpathy said the Maoists are gaining in strength of late. The State Government does not have a policy to tackle the menace, he said and added that either there should be talks with them or efforts should be made to solve it as a law and order issue.