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MVA govt is spreading rumours to hide their incapability: Former energy minister Bawankule

Home Minister Anil Deshmukh presented the report of the investigation conducted by Maharashtra Cyber in the case of power supply interruption in Mumbai on October 12, 2020 at the Sahyadri Guest House and handed over to Nitin Raut.

MVA govt is spreading rumours to hide their incapability: Former energy minister Bawankule
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Discounting the claims of cyber attack as reason for major power crisis in Mumbai city during last year, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, General Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stated that it was more due to technical incapability of electricity officials. He also stated that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government is spreading rumours about Chinese hackers to divert the attention and to cover up the power department’s negligence.

Bawankule on Tuesday, March 2, addressed a press conference in Nagpur to counter the claim made by State's Home Minister Anil Deshmukh pointing to suspect cyber attack as one of the reasons for tripping in Mumbai city.

Home Minister Anil Deshmukh presented the report of the investigation conducted by Maharashtra Cyber in the case of power supply interruption in Mumbai on October 12, 2020, at the Sahyadri Guest House and handed it over to Nitin Raut.

On October 12, 2020, all the four lines that supply electricity to the capital city had tripped leading to a power outage ranging from four to eight hours bringing Mumbai to a standstill. To make matters worse, in event of supply from outside Mumbai facing a problem, Mumbai's system isolates to protect to island from tripping. But islanding failed to work that day triggering panic in the commercial capital sending ripples across the nation.

Energy Minister Dr Nitin Raut had at that time requested for a further probe into the power outage in Mumbai as it was necessary to look into the matter. Accordingly, the Maharashtra Cyber Department was directed to investigate the matter. The American company Recorded Future Network Analysis released a report on February 28. In the report, it was stated that China may have injected malware (virus) into Mumbai's electrical infrastructure. A similar story appeared in the New York Times on March 1, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, said Anil Deshmukh.

Responding to it, Chandrasekhar Bawankule said that the type of power outage is completely man-made. It has nothing to do with any country. On October 12, 2020, the whole of Mumbai was plunged into darkness, due to the negligence and lack of coordination of the officials in the energy department. However, in order to cover up this failure, the Home Minister and the Energy Minister have started a new battle to mislead the people by giving the reason for China's cyber attack.

Further, in case of police probe came across any foreign hand or cyber attack, was the information shared with the Union Government and their help taken to pin down the actual culprits?

Since Maharashtra Government has failed to keep its promise of providing free consumption upto 100 units, the claims of cyber attack have been raked-up. For islanding to work properly, four power stations have to keep working, including two of hydro. But that day only Dhanu's power station was working and it could not top-up the major shortfall that occurred due to tripping of four lines on October 12. The Energy Department need to ensure that in future there is no recurrence of such major power tripping.

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