Union power minister Piyush Goyal  squarely blamed the previous Government for the inaction for not taking proper measures to control the power crisis which built up over the past 15 years.We are suffering because of the inaction of the previous government is what he said before  holding an  emergency meeting with Delhi's lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung and other top officials over the power crisis in the national capital. Residents across the national capital continued to reel under long outages on Monday, even as the heat wave showed no signs of abating. Delhi on Monday sizzled at 45.5 degrees celsius .Mr Goyal said a deadline of 10 days has been set to restore three major power lines that were damaged during a recent dust-storm.

As part of the measures to curtail excessive and unnecessary usage of power ,Delhi malls were told they will not receive power after 10 pm and street lamps will be switched off at the same time for three hours. Government establishments, including Delhi Secretariat and other government offices, universities, colleges have been advised to switch off air conditioning between 3.30 and 4.30 pm to conserve power during day peak hours.

Meanwhile natural gas from Dabhol power plant in Maharashtra will be diverted to generation stations to help produce an additional 218 MW of electricity for Delhi.