Industries warn of protest programme against power utility

 The unscheduled power cut has infuriated the industrialists, forcing them to announce the protest against the power monopoly.

They also warned to lock up Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) office, if the authority could not supply uninterrupted electricity to the industries along Sunsari-Morang Industrial corridor by Tuesday. “The NEA has disrupted power supply to the industrial area for more than 12 hours daily for the past few days without any notice,” they said at a joint press conference today,

Morang Merchant Association, Industry Association and Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI)-Province 1, jointly organising a press meet, said that the industries along the Sunsari-Morang corridor have to be shut down as the power supply has been down for almost 24 hours since Wednesday.

“The industries have suffered huge losses due to unannounced power cuts,” President of Morang Merchant Association Nabin Rijal said, adding that the goods in the machine and in godown have become useless due to  unannounced load shedding. “If the government does not solve the problem by Tuesday, We will be forced to padlock NEA on Wednesday, and announce additional agitation programmes from Thursday onwards.

The industrialists have also demanded to publish the load-shedding schedule, exploit maximum potential of domestic power generation capacity, ensure equitable distribution of electricity, abolish demand charges and find a solution through diplomatic initiatives with India.

At least 500 industries along the Sunsari-Morang corridor have been hit hard due to the unscheduled power cut.

The NEA has been buying 300 MW electricity from India to match the domestic demand. But the demand of electricity has increased in India recently making the import of electricity expensive, which has forced the NEA to impose power cut in the industries. However, the industrialists along the Sunsari-Morang corridor have been asking the NEA to publish the schedule of power outage so that they can plan the operation of the industries. But the authority neither is able to import the electricity from India nor publishing the load-shedding schedule forcing the industries to go for protest programme. The industries hit by the Covid-19 since last two years were trying to operate as usual in full capacity like in the days prior to the pandemic.