Minister Raps Officials Over Power Disruption at Durga Temple

A temporary power outage at the famous hill shrine of goddess Kanaka Durga in Vijayawada recently led to a needless controversy as some media houses tried to politicise the issue by portraying it as a failure of the government to clear pending electricity dues which prompted the power department to disconnect supply abruptly.  

Contrary to the unsubstantiated reports that some essential services were hit due to the power disruption, no major inconvenience was caused as temple authorities quickly took a remedial action before the electricity supply was restored. However, the government took a serious view of the incident and even held a detailed discussion about it during the recent cabinet meeting. 

As the issue triggered a political debate, Energy Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar quickly intervened and cleared the air on the controversy and also clarified that the unfortunate development happened only because of lack of coordination between officials of Endowment department and the Electricity department. 

He immediately held a urgent meeting and rapped the senior officials of Electricity department for their negligence which resulted in unnecessary controversy. He warned that strict action will be taken against officials responsible for the lapses and asked to submit a detailed report on the incident. 

Ravi Kumar has reportedly lashed out at officials for acting in haste and taking decisions without paying heed to the consequences. He also questioned why the lower-rung officials of both departments did not inform the matter to higher officials for a viable solution instead of disrupting the power supply. 

The Minister hit out at the allegations and said attempts were being made to gain political mileage by exploiting the issue between two different departments and also reiterated that the sentiments of the devotees will be accorded highest priority. He assured that such incidents will not recur in future.