The present power crisis in Maharashtra is due to the controversy over Enron project and not related to acceptance of Godbole Committee's recommendations four years ago, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Tuesday.
"The present power crisis is real but it has no relation with the acceptance of the Godbole Committee's recommendations four years ago by the state government. Rather, it is due to the state being embroiled in the Enron controversy," Deshmukh told reporters in Pune.
"We were not able to add any extra MW of power in last 10 years. The reason is that we were involved too much with the Enron controversy," the chief minister said in a reply to a question.
The demand for power has increased by 350 MW every year, but "the state failed to keep pace with it," he said adding, this has lead to the present crisis.
"Political parties have every right to express their resentment for the power shortage but not in a manner they are presently doing, ie by attacking MSEB offices," he said.
"We have to think of remedies to overcome the problem of power shortage in the state," Deshmukh said, adding that already MoUs have been signed with eight parties for generation of additional 12,500 MW of power with a view to make Maharashtra a power surplus state in the next five years.
Shiv Saniks had yesterday attacked MSEB office in Pune while BJP, Samajwadi Party activists had staged demonstrations at Pune, Akola and gheraoed the officials at Nagpur to protest load shedding.