Govt to gift cellphones to poor families. Elections calling?

New Delhi: The government is likely to spend Rs. 7,000 crore to provide a mobile phone to every family below the poverty line.

The scheme - titled Har Haath Mein Phone (in every hand, a phone) - will be announced on Independence Day in the PM's speech to the nation, said sources. Some newspaper reports state that six million families will get a phone and 200 free minutes.

The BJP described the freebie as a desperate attempt to seek favour among voters ahead of the general elections in 2014. "First, electricity should be provided to people in villages. Without electricity, what is the use of free mobile phones?" asked BJP leader Balbir Punj. "The government has not been able to implement any scheme without corruption," he added.

The cellphone scheme was allegedly conceived by the Planning Commission, whose parent is the Finance Ministry.

The world's worst power outages

July 31, 2012: Three power grids across half of India fail in what authorities call overdrawing of the system, leaving a record 620 million people without power for several hours and raising serious concerns about whether the country's outdated infrastructure can meet soaring demands.

July 30, 2012: India's northern electricity grid fails for much of the day, leaving 370 million people without power.

Nov. 10, 2009: Storms near the Itaipu hydroelectric dam on the Paraguay-Brazil border are tentatively blamed for outages that cut power to as many as 60 million people in Brazil for two to three hours. The entire nation of Paraguay, population 7 million, is also briefly blacked out.


January-February 2008: Winter storms cause a nearly two-week blackout to about 4 million people around the central Chinese city of Chenzhou. Eleven technicians reportedly die trying to restore power.

November 2006: A German power company switches off a high voltage line over a river to let a cruise ship pass. It triggers outages for 10 million people in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Aug. 18, 2005: An imbalanced power grid kicks power plants offline in Indonesia leaves almost 100 million people in the dark, many for more than five hours.

July 12, 2004: Heavy use of air conditioners and other factors are blamed for blackouts affecting at least 7 million people in Greece just a month before the summer Olympic games.

Sept. 28, 2003: A short in a power line in Switzerland leads to blackouts affecting 95 percent of Italy. Some 55 million people are without power for as long as 18 hours.

Aug. 14, 2003: The worst U.S. blackout. Power line problems in the Midwest trigger a cascade of breakdowns that cut power to 50 million people in eight states and Canada, some for more than a day.

March 11, 1999: Lightning hits a power substation in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, leaving 97 million people without power for as long as five hours. An official says it is linked to transmission lines from the Itaipu dam.

March 1989: A solar geomagnetic storm knocks out power to 6 million people in the Canadian province of Quebec and parts of the U.S. for nine hours.

July 13, 1977: A lightning bolt knocks out electricity to about 8 million people in New York City. Power isn't fully restored until 25 hours later after widespread looting.

Nov. 9, 1965: The Great Blackout shakes Americans' faith in the power system. A faulty substation relay darkens New York City and thousands of square miles of the U.S. northeast for about 14 hours. Power is out for 25 million people. It inspires the popular film, Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

Power crisis again: Northern, Eastern grids fail

The Northern and Eastern Grids tripped today, leading to power failure in several states of the country affecting hundreds of millions of people.

While the Northern Grid collapsed for the second time in two days, the Eastern transmission lines too failed in the afternoon, said officials at the Power Ministry and electricity companies.

Power supply was disrupted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Assam and Punjab, among other states.

“Yes, I've heard that the Northern and Eastern grids have failed. We are looking into the matter. We are inquiring,” Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.

The power crisis led to immediate shut-down of Delhi Metro lines in the national capital, while a host of other services including Railways were also affected.

“We are again having problems in Northern Grid,” K Soonee, CEO of Power System Operating Co (PSOC) said.

Power Ministry officials said Eastern Grid has also failed. The reasons for the grid failure were not immediately known.

While an almost 15-hour power crisis was seen in the Northern part yesterday, the crisis today reached the Eastern region as well.

Delhi government officials said the Northern Grid failed around 1.30 pm, when the national capital had a demand of around 4,000 MW. Only 38 MW was being supplied around 1.45 pm.

Again, Blackout. 12 states affected

New Delhi: Power supply to as many as 12 states has been disrupted after the Northern and Eastern supply grids failed. The crisis was allegedly triggered after states like Rajasthan and UP drew much more than their assigned share of power. Sources say UP and Haryana over-drew by 1200 MW each, for example. The supply to Delhi ay 1.30 pm was reduced to an all-time low of 40 MW against its demand of 4000 MW.   

Metro services on all six lines in Delhi have stopped. Upto 300 trains have reportedly been hit across the North. Shatabdis and Rajdhanis have been halted on their tracks.  

100 MWs of emergency power is being provided to VVIP areas in the capital.


A massive outage yesterday - the worst in a decade - left 370 million people in seven states and Delhi without power for many hours. The crisis then was caused by a collapse of the Northern grid.  Metro trains in Delhi yesterday were affected by that huge blackout, causing chaos during the morning rush hour.  500 passenger trains and 1.5 lakh people using them were affected by delays and cancellations.

Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said yesterday that a three-member committee would determine the cause of the crisis. He refused to confirm whether the outage was caused by state like UP and Haryana drawing more than their allotted share of power.  

Blast in Assam: Army vehicles targeted; one jawan killed, 7 injured

Guwahati: At least one jawan was killed and seven others were injured in a high intensity blast in Assam's Goalpara district today. 

According to sources, an improvised explosive device or an IED exploded under an army truck carrying soldiers from Kokrajhar to Agia in Goalpara at around 10:25 am.  A Tata Sumo car travelling along with the truck was also targeted.

Banned outfit United Liberation Front of Asom or ULFA is said to be behind the blast.