Several parts of national capital face outage as power grid substation catches fire
New Delhi, Jun 11: Several parts of the national capital, including the area housing the Delhi LG secretariat and Chief Minister's residence, faced outages for varying lengths as a substation of power grid in neighbouring UP's Mandola caught fire Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
Power distribution company officials said several areas, largely in central and east Delhi, were affected due to the failure. Some areas in north Delhi also faced outages.
"Areas likely Civil Lines, Model Town, Kashmiri Gate, Gulabi Bagh, Shakti Nagar and Vijay Nagar in North Delhi faced outages. The supply was resumed within an hour," said a discom official.
He said the power supply of the LG House and CM's residence was also briefly affected.
Areas in east, central, south and north Delhi like ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Jamia, Narela, Model Town, Rohini, Gopalpur, Sabzi Mandi, Wazirpur, and Kashmiri Gate also faced outages, he said.
Delhi Power Minister Atishi termed the occurrence extremely worrying and said she would meet the Union Power minister and chairman of Power Grid Corporation to ensure the prevention of such a situation.
In a letter to Union Power minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Atishi said that because of the fire at Mandola, there was a power outage of nearly two hours in several parts of Delhi, including Wazirabad, Kashmere Gate, Geeta Colony, Harsh Vihar, Preet Vihar, IP Power, Rajghat, Narela, and Gopalpur.
Delhi, besides being the national capital and housing political leaders and the entire Union government machinery, is also the home of more than 3 crore people, she said.
"In this scenario, it is a matter of grave concern that the failure of the national grid caused a power outage of two hours in the national capital. Due to the prevailing heatwave conditions, the need for uninterrupted electricity supply to Delhi is of paramount concern," Atishi said.
The power infrastructure is a vital indicator of the economic development of a country and therefore, it is extremely worrisome that the national power grid experienced such a "massive failure," she added.
Earlier in a post on X, the Delhi Power minister said the fire at the sub-station of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) in Mandola near Loni (Ghaziabad) in Uttar Pradesh had led to power outages in many parts of the national capital.
"There is power outage in many parts of Delhi from 2:11 pm. This is due to a fire at sub-station of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) in Mandola, UP. Delhi receives 1200 MW of power from the Mandola sub-station, and therefore many parts of Delhi have been affected. The power restoration process has begun and electricity is now gradually returning to different areas.
"The Delhi government has always tried to provide electricity 24x7. A few weeks ago, the peak power demand of 8300 MW was also met without any blackout. But today there was a power cut in Delhi due to the National Power Grid and we will take immediate action on this," she wrote in a statement.
Power discom Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited said in a statement that power supply in its areas was swiftly restored.
The fire incident impacted the power supply at DTL Grid sub-stations in Gopalpur, Sabzi Mandi, Kashmiri Gate and Narela affecting power supply in areas of TPDDL, it said.
"This led to disruption of power in areas like Narela, Bhalaswa, Burari, Badli, Dheerpur, Shakti Nagar, Swiss apartment, Civil Lines, Model Town, Kashmiri Gate, Shahjada Bagh, Delhi University, GTB Nagar area, Mukherjee Nagar & Jahangirpuri resulting into load shedding of 440 MW and affecting approx. 4 Lakh consumers," it said.
The discom started restoration work immediately completed it within an hour, it added.
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CCTVs in police stations: SC asks amicus to convene meeting on utilisation of funds
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that a meeting be convened on May 6 to deliberate on the aspect of utilisation of funds by the states on installation of CCTVs in police stations across the country.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta asked senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, who is assisting it as an amicus curiae in a suo motu matter concerning lack of functional CCTVs in police stations, to hold a meeting on May 6 with the Centre, all states and Union Territories.
"We are of the view that a meeting be convened by the amicus, as done earlier, in which the home secretary of the central government or his nominee not below the rank of joint or additional secretary and the home secretary of states/Union Territories will participate," the bench said.
The issue cropped up after the amicus flagged the aspect of utilisation of funds by the states.
Dave told the bench that in UTs, the Centre gives 100 percent funds while in hilly states, the central government gives 90 percent funding.
He said in remaining states, the Centre gives 60 percent while the rest 40 percent funding is by the respective state.
"Why don't we get responses of the states only on utilisation of funds?" the bench said.
The top court suggested that the amicus can convene a meeting with the Centre, states and UTs on the issue.
It posted the matter for hearing on May 13 and said that a report be submitted before it.
On April 7, the Centre told the top court that all issues concerning installation of CCTVs in police stations would be sorted out within two weeks.
Attorney General R Venkataramani had told the bench that he was taking stock of the issue and a lot of things were happening.
On February 26, the apex court directed the Centre and others to participate in a meeting to deliberate upon the feasibility, modalities and implementation framework of the issues, including creation of a centralised dashboard and standardisation of CCTV infrastructure in police stations.
The top court had earlier directed registration of a suo motu case over the lack of functional CCTVs in police stations after taking cognisance of a media report.
The apex court had in 2018 ordered the installation of CCTV cameras across police stations to check human rights abuses.
In December 2020, the top court directed the Centre to install CCTV cameras and recording equipment at the offices of investigating agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
It said that states and UTs should ensure that CCTV cameras were installed at every police station, at all entry and exit points, main gate, lock-ups, corridors, lobby and reception, as well as in areas outside the lock-up rooms so that no part was left uncovered.
The top court said that CCTV systems must be equipped with night vision and have audio as well as video footage.
The court made it mandatory for the Centre, states and the UTs to purchase such systems which allow storage of data for at least one year.
