The are acute power shortages very early in summer in Haryana and its capital, Chandigarh (that it shares with the Punjab). In India, electricity generation is a provincial subject.
Some provinces have a surplus while most have a shortage. The surplus provinces sell power to deficit provinces if they want to. There is no compulsion to do it. Rates charged are as high as Rs 7.25 per unit. Agreements are flouted for selfish reasons. And there is no such thing as a national grid.
Pakistan too had power generation as a provincial subject until late 1950s. One of the first steps of Ayub Khan after taking-over in 1958 was to take away electricity from the provinces and create WAPDA as a national organisation to generate and distribute it. WAPDA later created a national grid to supply electricity evenly all over the country.
Now, a further step is being taken to create distribution companies that will be privatised in due course. Provinces have no role in the entire system.
India finds no way to solve the problem. Politics will not allow the take-over of provincial electricity boards by the centre because surplus provinces will resist it. And all provinces do not have enough resources to generate electricity of their own. Then, almost all electricity boards are running huge losses because provincial governments ignore power theft by politicians and give huge subsidies for political reasons.
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