New Delhi: Why can’t Delhi-NCR have round-the-clock electricity, the Supreme Court questioned the central government on Monday.
A bench led by Justice Madan B Lokur has sought a response from the government, elucidating the reasons for shortfall of electricity and deficiencies in distribution to Delhi-NCR.
The National Capital Region (NCR) consists of 22 districts across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, apart from the national capital. Seeking a reply by December 4, the court issued a notice to the government after an amicus curiae in a PIL moved an application in this regard.
The application by advocate Aparajita Singh said the Centre must oversee and strengthen measures to ensure there is uninterrupted power supply in Delhi-NCR.
Accepting her submissions, the bench called for the bottlenecks in supplying power to Delhi-NCR 24×7 to be removed, and further sought statistics on generation and distribution of electricity.
The court has also sought to know whether sufficeint gas supply can be made available so that all power generation in NCR is via power plants using gas and not coal as the principle fuel.
According to the plea, gas is a cleaner fuel than coal and shifting to gas is imperative in view of environmental concerns.
The application has also asked for a review of the status of existing coal- based power plants and a time-bound switch to natural gas.
In India, thermal plants based on coal account for around two-thirds of electricity generation. Gas-based, hydel and solar power plants constitute the rest of the power generation.
Source: news18
