The worsening electricity crisis in Maharashtra triggered arson and violence in select cities Monday as people came out on the streets to protest long hours of power cuts in peak summer.


Twenty people, mostly opposition Shiv Sena activists, were detained in Pune after they resorted to vandalism at the city's main office of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB).

Sena activists had gathered at the MSEB office to protest the frequent power cuts in the city. The mob pulled down the iron gates of the office and set furniture on fire.

Similar unrests were also witnessed in Nagpur where a citizen's forum took out a protest march. Train services were disrupted at several places.

The agitation in Pune and Nagpur followed protests in Aurangabad, Akola and Sangli areas of the country's top industrialised state.

Alarmed by the growing turmoil, the state government said it was working on projections to resolve the crisis.

"As of now our state faces a shortage of 4,000 MW. This is why we have to go in for load shedding for long hours," said Dalip Patil, energy minister in the Maharashtra government.

"Although today's incident clearly indicates that the power issue has been politicised, we are trying our best to alleviate the problems faced by people across the state," Patil told reporters here.

Maharashtra needs 12,700 MW during peak summer but is managing to generate only 9,000 MW - a deficit of nearly 4,000 MW.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) last week clamped restrictions on electricity usage, including a complete ban on neon signs, advertising billboards and illumination of heritage buildings across the state.

In Mumbai, neon signs, giant advertising billboards and anything that consumes extra electricity has been banned from using power for four hours in the evening for the next two months.

The state has been reeling under an unprecedented power crisis in the last few months.

All cities, except Mumbai, go powerless for four hours every day, while villages face nine hours of load shedding.