Congress activists hurl tomatoes at Energy Minister's residence over power outrage
On Monday, activists from the Odisha Congress's student wing protested frequent power outages across the state in front of Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb's official residence in Bhubaneswar.
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Bhubaneswar: On Monday, activists from the Odisha Congress's student wing protested frequent power outages across the state in front of Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb's official residence in Bhubaneswar.
A large number of student Congress activists and leaders gathered outside Deb's residence, holding lanterns and hand fans, to protest the state's erratic power supply. Demonstrators also hurled tomatoes at the Minister's home, accusing him of failing miserably to perform his duties.
Demonstrators demanded the Minister's resignation over the issue, accusing him of being responsible for making life miserable for the people due to frequent power outages.
They claimed that the Minister should resign immediately because he has failed to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the state, and that Deb has failed to clearly instruct Tata Power to safeguard the interests of consumers, particularly during the summer.
The protesters blamed the Minister for the distribution companies' erratic power supply and said Deb's claim about surplus power in the state was ridiculous. They claimed that having plenty of power is useless if the government fails to provide it to the people when they need it the most.
A protester claimed that Deb should be removed from the Ministerial Council by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his "poor performance," citing the recent removal of a Minister on similar grounds.
The demonstrators attempted to storm the Minister's residence by scaling the gate, but were stopped by police officers stationed nearby.
According to the protesters, the Minister himself admitted that power supply is being disrupted in various locations due to inadequate infrastructure and technical glitches. They wanted to know what the state government had done to strengthen power infrastructure over the last 23 years.
