Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called on the Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to seek his personal intervention in allocation of atleast 1000 MWpower from the unallocated quota of Central Sector generation stations till September for ensuring 8-hour uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector during the current Paddy season. Taking part in the deliberations during a meeting with Shinde in his office ‘Sharam Shakti Bhawan’ at New Delhi this morning, the Chief Minister also urged him to enhance the available transmission capacity from 5100 MW to atleast 5500 MW for Punjab so that arranged power could flow to the state. Badal apprised him that to meet the power demand of the state, Punjab government had already initiated several power projects in a big way and around 3920 MW capacity addition was under way and subsequently the state would be self sufficient in power within the next two years. Badal pointed out till that time our dependence on the external sources would remain. The Chief Minister also informed Shinde that out of country’s total unallocated power of 1750 MW, Punjab was allocated 285 MW last year. Reiterating his demand, Badal urged the Union Power Minister to immediately allot 1000 MW from unallocated quota for the current Kharif season besides to overcome the acute of power in domestic sectors due to hike in its demand to 22% this year as compared to average demand of 10% over last few years.The situation has further worsened this year due to the truant monsoon resulting in low level of reservoir in Bhakra and Pong dam. Shinde assured the Chief Minister of positive response on the maximum allocation of power from unallocated quota in view of state’s huge requirement of power. The Union Power Minister reiterated that the state farmers would not be allowed to suffer due to shortage of power during the ensuing paddy season as Punjab was the major contributor of food grain in the national pool and deserved special dispensation for unallocated power from the Central Sector Generating Stations.