Conspiracy behind power outages: Tamil Nadu Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar warns of action against ‘black sheep’ responsible for power cuts

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], May 23 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar on Saturday alleged that there was a "conspiracy" behind recent power outages in parts of the state and warned that strict action would be taken against those responsible by tonight.
Speaking to reporters after participating in the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Engineers' Association, the minister said a few negligent individuals within the Electricity Board had been identified and were suspected of deliberately causing disruptions.
"While 99 per cent of the Electricity Board employees are working efficiently, a few black sheep have been identified displaying negligence. Information has been received that certain individuals, possibly acting under someone's instigation, are deliberately causing power disruptions. Strict action will be taken against whoever is responsible by tonight," Nirmal Kumar said.
The minister clarified that Tamil Nadu was not facing any electricity shortage and attributed the outages mainly to technical faults in old infrastructure.
"There is no power shortage in Tamil Nadu. In some places, fuses switch off when the load is low, while in other places tripping occurs when the load is high. Faults in legacy transformers and old cables are the primary reasons for power outages," he said.
According to the minister, electricity consumption has reached peak levels due to the sharp rise in summer temperatures.
To address complaints in Chennai, the government has formed seven Rapid Engineering Teams equipped with dedicated vehicles to monitor and resolve outages round-the-clock.
"Chief Engineers and senior officials have been conducting direct inspections, patrols, and repair works at substations continuously over the past two nights without sleep," he said, adding that faults in districts including Tiruvallur, Kallakurichi, Coimbatore and Karur had already been rectified.
Nirmal Kumar further stated that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has been burdened with nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore debt and is facing severe manpower shortages.
"While 1,40,000 employees are required, only about 70,000 are currently working. Contract workers and additional rented vehicles have been temporarily deployed to accelerate operations," he said.
On solar energy projects, the minister said irregularities in previous systems had been identified and corrective action initiated.
"Solar tenders worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore that were issued without proper inspection have been cancelled," he said.
He also announced that a new transparent approval system for investors would soon be introduced, with an investors' meeting scheduled for Monday. (ANI)