As Punjab faces acute electricity outage, with residential areas and industry in Ludhiana, Mandi Gobindgarh, Amritsar and Jalandhar complaining about long outages, Power and Public Works Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond on Saturday blamed the Union government for the state currently receiving 1,051 MW less power against its share from the central pool.Sond said, “Punjab is an agrarian state and adequate and uninterrupted power supply is essential for our farmers and the state’s economy. The Centre should immediately provide Punjab its due share from the central power pool.”Govt slept sans power reserves: CongressKapurthala Congress legislator and former minister Rana Gurjeet Singh on Saturday slammed the AAP government over its mishandling of the power sectorHe said Punjab was reeling under a self-inflicted power catastrophe solely caused by the regime’s administrative bankruptcy, lack of technical vision and inexperienceHe said the state that once stood out for its robust grid management and surplus generation capacity was now grappling with crippling and unannounced power cutsThe minister said he had also urged the Union Power Minister to immediately ensure that Punjab received its full and rightful share from the central pool.Refuting allegations of a coal shortage, Sond said there was no shortage of coal in the thermal power plants owned by the state government. “Punjab has already operationalised the Pachhwara coal mine, ensuring adequate availability of coal for the state’s own power generation facilities,” he added.“The issue is with the supply to the private thermal power plants at Talwandi Sabo and Rajpura, which has to be ensured by Coal India,” he said. Sond said Punjab ran 10 thermal power generating units — four each at Lehra Mohabbat and Ropar and two at Goindwal Sahib. He said, “The technical fault in one of the units has been resolved by PSPCL officials. Our government and the PSPCL are closely monitoring the power situation and taking all necessary measures to ensure reliable electricity supply. Efforts are on to restore the remaining units of the private thermal power plants at the earliest.”