Delhi experienced planned and emergency shutdowns for six days last month, show data.
| Photo Credit: file photo

The tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party government over the issue of power cuts continued on Thursday, with the Opposition party alleging that the Capital has witnessed several instances of frequent and prolonged power outages since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in February.

Rebutting AAP’s claims, Power Minister Ashish Sood said that only planned electricity cuts had been scheduled for maintenance work.

Addressing a press conference, senior AAP leader Jasmine Shah claimed data of discoms BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna through the Delhi State Load Dispatch Centre for March 26 to 31 show that “the government’s assertion about planned shutdowns is false”.

However, according to BSES data accessed by The Hindu, the Capital recorded both planned and emergency shutdowns during the period mentioned by Mr. Shah, with the frequency of the former being much higher.

While planned outages lasted from an hour to five hours, the duration of emergency shutdowns was between one and three hours.

Mr. Shah claimed that data highlight instances of several unscheduled power cuts across the city, lasting from 30 minutes to over three hours in areas including Sadar Bazar, Nand Nagri, Yamuna Vihar, and Safdarjung Enclave.

“Since the BJP government took charge, Delhi’s power distribution system has collapsed. People are experiencing the kind of crisis they haven’t experienced in the last 10 years,” said Mr. Shah.

Countering the allegations, the Minister said that during the tenure of the previous AAP government, the discoms had highlighted “multiple instances of extended power cuts lasting three to four hours” at a meeting in May 2023 chaired by then Power Minister Atishi.

He added that as per the minutes of another meeting held the following month, Ms. Atishi had “inquired about the areas that experience frequent four-hour-long power cuts”.

Earlier this week, Mr. Sood had claimed that there were no unscheduled power cuts in the Capital and that all shutdowns were part of planned maintenance operations.

The Hindu reached out to the BSES for comment. However, no response was received at the time of going to press.