She said that the diesel expenses and the operational costs of the generators would be borne by the Government.

The Chief Minister of Tamil nadu Ms Jayalalithaa in a statement today said that,lack of foresight and  failure of the  minority DMK governmnet on the the electricity front has led to the power crisis in the state.

Coming down hard on the previous DMK regime, Ms Jayalalithaa pointed out that only 206 Megawatt was additionally generated during the DMK rule. She charged the erstwhile DMK Government of not implementing the power schemes devised by her during her previous tenure as Chief Minister. Additionally, the delay in finishing the projects came in the way of getting the required supply.

Moreover, the DMK government had made it a habit of purchasing power from the open market and had not taken any steps for procuring power  on a long term basis.

The State was not able to get power from other states due to problems in the transmission corridor and Tamil Nadu received only 235 MW of power from Gujarat as against the agreed 500 MW.

This had led to increase in the demand-supply gap, the Chief Minister said and added that in a bid to overcome this crisis the TNEB had announced increased load shedding.

Mentioning  the review meeting on the power situation prevailing in the state with the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and the concerned officials on the 17th and 23rd of this month, Ms Jayalalithaa said that the current power requirement of the state was 11 thousand 500 to 12 thousand 500 Megawatt while only 8 thousand 500 megawatts of power was being provided to us from the power stations in Tamil Nadu, Central Generating pool and other sources. She said that there was a shortfall of 3000 to 4000 megawatt. Ms Jayalalithaa added that it has become imperative to increase the power cut duration as the demand and the supply was not proportional. She said that the officials concerned have bren advised that power cuts without prior announcements should not be made.

To tide over the crisis and based on the suggestions of the industrial establishments and the review meetings with TANGEDCO,the TNEB came up with the announcement of the duration of power cuts,Ms Jayalalithaa said.

She further said with a view to ensuring uninterrupted power supply to schools during the load shedding hours, the government would provide generators to all its schools to ensure that tenth and higher secondary students preparing for their examinations did not face any problems.The government would hire generator sets on rent and  provide it to all the schools, she said, adding, the government would bear the entire diesel and operational costs of the generator sets. Ms Jayalalithaa said government-aided and private high  and higher secondary schools could also take generator sets on hire and the government would compensate the additional costs incurred by these schools.