New Delhi: Himachal Pradesh topped the list with the maximum average hours of power cuts in rural areas last year, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, according to power and new and renewable energy minister R.K. Singh. In urban areas, Jammu and Kashmir had the most number of power cuts, followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The data shared by the minister in parliament was available till October 2021.
Himachal Pradesh’s rural areas saw 2,563 hours of power cuts in 2021-22, slightly lower than 2,981 hours and 3,056 hours in 2020-21 and 2019-20, respectively. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh also saw a marginal decline of 1,750 hours of power cuts last year compared to 2,762 hours and 2,550 hours in the previous two years.
Meanwhile, rural areas of several states have reported dramatic improvements over the years, data shared by the minister said. For instance, Rajasthan reported 468 hours of power cuts in 2021-22, compared to 961 hours and 988 hours of power outages in 2020-21 and 2019-20, respectively. West Bengal reported 47 hours of power cuts last year, compared to 341 hours of power outages in the previous two years. The state had reported 2123 hours of power cuts in 2018-19.
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Odisha, which saw 1,458 hours of power cuts in rural areas in 2019-20, saw a massive improvement in the next two years with 998 and 30 hours of power outages, respectively. Maharashtra also saw a major improvement with only 277 hours of power cuts in its rural areas in 2021-22, compared to 1107 hours in the previous year.
In urban areas, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have seen an increase in power cuts over the years.
Chhattisgarh reported 50 hours of power cuts in 2021-22, compared to six hours in the last two years. Rajasthan saw 24 hours of power cuts last year, compared to six hours in the previous year. However, the state has seen much improvement since 2019-20 when it reported 43 hours of power cuts.
Similarly, Uttar Pradesh has also seen an improvement in the average hours of power cuts from 159 hours in 2019-20 to 91 hours in 2020-21, but power cuts slightly increased to 92 hours. West Bengal reported power outages of 46 hours last year, compared to six and 12 hours in the previous two years.
The data for New Delhi – where people get “zero power bill” up to 200 units of electricity and a subsidy of Rs 800 for consuming 201 to 400 units of monthly electricity – was not available.