Power Minister’s town asks for inverter subsidy

As several parts of India reel under acute power shortage in temperatures already past 40 degrees Celsius, the place where the heat is perhaps felt with more piquancy than anywhere else is Solapur

As several parts of India reel under acute power shortage in temperatures already past 40 degrees Celsius, the place where the heat is perhaps felt with more piquancy than anywhere else is Solapur, hometown and constitutency of Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

The mercury is already touching 42 degrees Celsius in this textile town, some 450 km from Mumbai, and power cuts are as long as six hours within city limits, and up to 14 hours in rural areas. Strangely, not many seem bothered about the power cut or whether Shinde is doing anything about it. What they want — and this is the hot topic everywhere — is for the minister to arrange for some kind of subisdy on inverters.

“Shinde sahib says that he can’t change the entire situation within a day,” said Savitri Patil, a housewife who is still searching for an inverter that suits her budget. “But at least he could help us with some special rebate to buy inverters. Solapur has supported him throughout his political career and now the sahib should help us.”

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Justifying the subsidy demand was Ashok Phulsundar an entrepreneur: “If Sharad Pawar could change face of Baramati using central and state funds, why can’t Shinde provide minor subsidy for inverters.”

The power of the inverter is there for all to see in the commercial bylanes of Solapur. Last year, hardly half-a-dozen electrical shops in Solpaur sold inverters. Today, beside six indigenous manufacturing units, 25 electrical shops exclusively sell inverters. Out of some 250 electrical shops in the city, nearly 80 shops, like the one owned by Jagganath Surawase of Vaishnavi Electricals, have started procuring inverters from manufacturing companies across the country. The reason? “There is sizeable margins in the inverter business,” said Surawase.

Inverters, which charge up their batteries when there is power supply and can run most low-load electrical appliances when there’s a power cut, are available in a wide range of prices. But the price graph has steadily been on the rise.

Shishir Sathe, an indigenous inverter manufacturer admitted as much: “Inverters are available from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000. In April, we manufactured more than 200 inverter sets, which in other months would not have topped 50.”

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Said Purshottam Bagade, president of the Solapur Electrical Dealers Association, “Sensing business opportunity, companies selling inverters from Pune, Mumbai and New Delhi have started gravitating towards the Solapur market.”

Shinde was not available for comment despite repeated efforts, but his daughter Praniti Shinde, who runs the Jai Jui Foundation, seems to be doing her bit for Solapur. She said, “My foundation is basically wking with Self Help Groups (SHG) producing candles. This is one way my foundation is trying to tackle the power shortage problem in Solapur.”