Bhubaneswar: The ongoing power crisis in Odisha on Wednesday took the centre-stage in the State Assembly with the Opposition members accusing the state government for doing nothing for the last 12 year to generate power to meet the growing needs of Odisha. Participating in the discussion on the admissibility of an adjournment motion on power cut and states favouritism towards the industrial houses, energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak blamed the NTPC and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd for accentuating the situation. He said that the power crisis this year was a national phenomenon and the state government was leaving no stone unturned to tide over the temporary power shortfall. However, expressing displeasure over the minister’s reply, the Opposition members staged a walkout in the House. Participating in the discussion the Congress and BJP members alleged that though the state government had been claiming Odisha to be the surplus state in the availability of power, in fact, no tangible efforts were taken to generate power to cater to the growing need, the result being the acute power shortage. They alleged that while there was power-cut for three hours in the urban areas, the situation is precarious in rural areas with over seven hour power cuts. They alleged that the state government is providing power and waiving electricity taxes to industries at the cost of the general consumers. To bring home their allegations, they said that process has already been initiated to waive electricity tax to the tune Rs 185 crore to IMFA and Rs 165 crore to Balasore Alloys. On the other hand, for non payment of power bills, the poor and general consusmers were getting disconnections and fines and subsidised or free power is being given to farmers, they pointed out. The Congress members alleged that the state government was not implementing the Centrally-sponsored schemes like the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana for fear of the popularity of the Centre. However, the ruling party members defending the state government alleged that Centre’s neglect and apathetic attitude in not providing the coal block to the independent power companies and the inadequate coal supply and high cost coal by the central sector MCL had resulted in the power crisis. In his reply, the energy minister admitted that the state was facing a power crisis this year and attributed the problem to reduced reservoir level in hydro power projects mostly in southern and western Odisha and short supply, substandard coal supply as well as the steep hike of coal rate by the MCL. Stating that there has been a short fall of around 400 MW of power during the peak hour, he said that the only around 2,300 to 2,400 MW of power was available. While the hydro power generation has been around 1,200 MW, now the generation is limited to only around 300 MW due to lack of water in reservoirs. Nayak also said that though the state was depending mostly on thermal power to meet the peak demand of 33,000 MW, the non-supply of adequate and high standard coal to thermal projects resulted in fall in generation. While the state gets 50 per cent less power, the crisis has multiplied for the increase in coal price by 40 per cent by the MCL. Besides, the state is not getting its due share from the Farakka MCLI, a unit of NTPC and Kahalgaon, due to closure of some units. Stating that the power situation is much better than other states, the minister said that while there was 21 per cent short fall in Bihar, 12 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 24 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 24 per cent in Maharashtra. Asserting that the state government is taking all steps to tide over the temporary problem, Nayak said that at least two major captive thermal plant in private sector would be coming up by June next year. Dismissing the allegation of the waiving of electricity dues to industrial houses, he said that not a single pie would be waived to any industrial house.