India Uncut
This blog has moved to its own domain. Please visit IndiaUncut.com for the all-new India
Uncut and bookmark it. The new site has much more content and some new sections, and you can read about them here and here. You can subscribe to full RSS feeds of all the sections from here.
This blogspot site will no longer be updated, except in case of emergencies, if the main site suffers a prolonged outage. Thanks - Amit.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
What power crisis?
People in power don't face a power crisis, even in Maharashtra. Chitrangada Choudhury of the Indian Express reports:
Now, normally I would consider it none of my business how many ACs an individual has in his home. Only here, you and I and every taxpayer throughout Maharastra who suffers a few hours of loadshedding every day is paying for it. And that too, for incompetent ministers whose negligence and callousness has contributed to Maharashtra's power crisis.
Choudhury adds a relevant bit of information: "[T]heir home constituencies — Walse-Patil’s Ambegaon near Pune and Mohite-Patil’s Aklooj down south — are reeling under nine-hour power cuts."
And now for an irrelevant musing. If the daughter of one of these guys decides to marry the son of the other, and hyphenate her maiden name to her husband's surname, then the lady is question might well be called [first-name] Walse-Patil-Mohite-Patil. How many ACs, I wonder, will be part of her dowry? Many more than the hyphens, I'm sure.
They talk of moderate consumption to tide over the severe power crisis in Maharashtra. But when it comes to walking that talk, the state’s ministers seem to have fallen short by miles—government records show that the Energy Minister and Rural Development Minister have run up electricity bills of around Rs 30,000 each.
All paid by the Public Works Department, from the taxpayer’s pocket.
The official bungalows of Energy Minister Dilip Walse-Patil has 10 ACs and that of Rural Development Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil at least nine.
Now, normally I would consider it none of my business how many ACs an individual has in his home. Only here, you and I and every taxpayer throughout Maharastra who suffers a few hours of loadshedding every day is paying for it. And that too, for incompetent ministers whose negligence and callousness has contributed to Maharashtra's power crisis.
Choudhury adds a relevant bit of information: "[T]heir home constituencies — Walse-Patil’s Ambegaon near Pune and Mohite-Patil’s Aklooj down south — are reeling under nine-hour power cuts."
And now for an irrelevant musing. If the daughter of one of these guys decides to marry the son of the other, and hyphenate her maiden name to her husband's surname, then the lady is question might well be called [first-name] Walse-Patil-Mohite-Patil. How many ACs, I wonder, will be part of her dowry? Many more than the hyphens, I'm sure.
