Rajasthan: Mercury soars to 50 deg C; state Cong chief slams CM for prioritising poll campaigning

Heat conditions intensified in Rajasthan where mercury touched 50 degrees Celsius, the local weather office said on Saturday. According to Met Centre Jaipur, the maximum temperature recorded in Phalodi during the day was 50 degrees Celsius, followed by Barmer at 48.8 degrees Celsius.

In Jaisalmer, it reached 48 degrees Celsius, in Bikaner 47.2 degrees Celsius, in Churu 47 degrees Celsius, in Jodhpur 46.9 degrees Celsius, in Ganganagar 46.5 degrees Celsius, in Kota 46.3 degrees Celsius and in Jaipur 43.8 degrees Celsius, the centre said.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee President Govind Singh Dotasra targeted Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma saying that instead of finding a solution to water and power crisis in the state, he is busy campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in other states.

Dotasra said the BJP government in the state is not able to provide electricity and drinking water to people and, therefore, even in this scorching heat, so many people in the rural areas are forced to walk miles to get drinking water. ''People in urban areas are spending a lot of money on buying water from tankers. Due to the government's negligence, there has been a severe power crisis in the state and the government is imposing undeclared power cuts of two to four hours in the state capital,'' he claimed.

Dotasra said that in other cities and rural areas of the state, people are facing power cuts that last several hours.

''The people of the state are suffering due to power cuts and lack of supply of drinking water while the chief minister is busy in campaigning in other states instead of finding a solution to these problems,'' the Congress leader said.

Dotasra said that BJP MLAs, leaders and ministers are writing to the chief minister demanding uninterrupted supply of water and electricity in their respective areas, but the state government is not taking any decision to find a solution.

''It seems that the entire government is being run by administrative officials and BJP leaders are busy in election campaigning in other states, leaving the distressed people to fend for themselves,'' he said.

The Congress leader said that although the meteorological department had predicted severe heat in the state, the Rajasthan government failed to create an action plan to ensure a smooth electricity supply. As a result, there is a shortage of 600 lakh units of electricity per day for consumers in the state, he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)