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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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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