KATHMANDU, Sept 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Barshaman Pun has directed Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to immediately address the problem in power supply. Of late, frequent power outages have been reported in different places of the country due to bad weather.
Calling NEA’s officiating Managing Director Lekhanath Koirala and other executives for a meeting on Thursday, the minister has asked them to immediately resolve the issue of power outage. He has asked Koirala to do the needful to solve the problem. “The general public is our customers. So, immediately address the concerns of our customers,” he said, “We should not take the complaints negatively and work in a way to address their concern as soon as possible as it is their right to get regular electricity supply.”
He stressed that some people have started linking the power outage problem with the vacant position of NEA’s managing director and that such people needed to be answered through action. “The ministry has been receiving complaints about the NEA,” he said asking NEA officials to work honestly to resolve legitimate concerns of the customers.
Minister Pun also claimed that he had proposed reappointing former NEA managing director Kulman Ghising in the cabinet and the proposal is under discussion. He asked the current team of NEA to work in a way not to make it obvious that the organization is leaderless. “Don’t think that you are just an officiating managing director. Make full use of your authority to make the services better,” he told Koirala.
Pravin Raj Aryal, spokesperson and joint secretary at the energy ministry, said that the lack of right information on time has caused people to have misconceptions regarding the issue.
Meanwhile, Koirala said that bad weather has been causing such problems and the issue will be eventually solved as there’s improvement in weather. NEA officials attributed incessant rainfall, flood, landslide, thunderstorm and fallen trees as the reasons for the current problems in power supply.