Parliament Question: Non-availability of power in various districts of Odisha

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1103 ANSWERED ON 09.02.2026 NON-AVAILABILITY OF POWER IN VARIOUS DISTRICTS OF ODISHA 1103 DR. SASMIT PATRA: Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has examined the contradiction that the State of Odisha, despite being a major power-generating State, continues to face unreliable and poor-quality electricity supply in tribal and rural districts such as Malkangiri, Kandhamal, Koraput and Nabarangpur; (b) the district-wise status of transmission and distribution infrastructure strengthening funded by the Centre during the last two years; (c) whether Government has taken cognisance of frequent outages, low voltage, transformer failures and their impact on agriculture, healthcare, rural enterprises; and (d) time-bound corrective steps being enforced to ensure that backward regions of Odisha receive equitable and dependable power access rather than remaining merely energy- producing zones? A N S W E R THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF POWER (SHRI SHRIPAD NAIK) (a) : (i) Electricity, being a concurrent subject, the supply and distribution of electricity in a State/UT is within the purview of the respective State Government/Power Utility, including making arrangement of appropriate quantum of power from various sources for providing adequate power to all consumers/areas. The Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments by establishing power plants in Central Sector through Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and allocating power from them to the various States / UTs. (ii) The details of actual Power Supply Position for the State of Odisha for last three financial years and the current financial year i.e. 2025-26 (up to December, 2025) are as under: Energy [in Million Unit (MU) Energy Energy Energy not Financial Year (FY) Requirement Supplied Supplied ( MU ) ( MU) ( MU ) ( % ) 2022-23 42,631 42,584 47 0.1 2023-24 41,358 41,333 25 0.1 2024-25 42,882 42,858 24 0.1 2025-26 (upto 34,064 34,059 5 0.0 December, 2025) ……..2.- 2 - It may be seen from the above that the gap between Energy Requirement and Energy Supplied in the State of Odisha is almost ‘Nil’ during the last 3 years and current year i.e. 2025-26 (up to December, 2025). (b) : As all the four DISCOMs in Odisha are Private utilities, therefore they are eligible to avail funding under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) limited to electrification of tribal households under PM-JANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan), and DA- JGUA (Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan). (c) & (d) : It is the responsibility of the respective distribution utility to improve and augment their distribution infrastructure in order to provide reliable and quality power supply to all consumers including those in rural and backward areas. As reported by the state, the state DISCOMs are taking proactive steps to ensure reliable and quality electricity supply in rural and tribal areas by addressing outages, voltage fluctuations and transformer failures. Continuous monitoring and corrective measures are being undertaken to strengthen the distribution network and support agriculture, healthcare services and rural enterprises. Key measures include replacement of old and failed transformers, augmentation of substations, strengthening of feeder lines, provision of dedicated feeders at select locations for agriculture and rural households, deployment of mobile service and maintenance teams for prompt restoration of supply, and timely replacement of burnt Distribution Transformers/ Power Transformers (DTRS/PTRs) as per SOPs within 24 hours in urban areas and 48 hours in rural areas. ************