New Delhi: Delhi Power minister Ashish Sood on Thursday warned of strict action against those “spreading lies” about power cuts in the city.
Sood also claimed that during the over-decade-long AAP regime, there were over five-hour cuts on 31,958 occasions, averaging 14 cuts per day.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Atishi earlier claimed there were increased power outages ever since the BJP came to power in the city.
“How is it that in 10 years, there were no outages, but within a month of BJP rule, power cuts are back?” she wondered on Monday. “This means only one thing: the BJP doesn’t know how to run the government.” On Thursday,
Sood at a press conference shot back, “Atishi is dishing out lies and making false claims to mislead the people.” He added, “Legal consultation is underway for strict action against
those spreading misinformation and disrupting peace.”
Earlier, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal also in a post on X claimed “huge shortage” of electricity, water, as well as medicines in government hospitals. Sood accused Kejriwal and Atishi of “hypocrisy” and claimed that the party was praising the same discoms which it threatened earlier.
In a statement, he also shared the instances of power cuts provided by the discoms relating to power outages in the last 10 years.
“According to the data, Delhi experienced 7,160 such instances in 2015, followed by 8,659 in 2016, 7,301 in 2017, 6,265 in 2018, and 5,010 in 2019. The numbers further declined to 3,807 in 2020, 3,671 in 2021, and 2,692 in 2022. However, the instances rose slightly to 3,486 in 2023 and 3,907 in 2024,” Sood said. The minister said power cuts are sometimes necessary due to waterlogging to offset the risk of electrocution.
The government is identifying flood-prone areas and coordinating with PWD and Delhi Jal Board to address the issue, he said. Sood said that Delhi’s peak power demand reached 8,600 MW last year and this summer, it is expected to touch 9,200 MW. The government is fully prepared to meet the increase, he added.