"Flying Bats" Reason For Glitch In Bhopal Power Supply, Says State Energy Minister

The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday said "flying bats" have been causing faults in power supply lines in a locality of the state capital. 

Minister for Energy Priyavrat Singh said this in the assembly in reply to a question about power cuts asked by Yashpal Sisodiya (BJP).

During the discussion, Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava of the BJP asked the minister to clarify his previous statement that "flying bats have been causing power tripping".

The minister asked Mr Bhargava not to link the problem of "bats causing faults in power lines" with the entire state as this was confined just to one locality in Bhopal.

Mr Singh said these flying mammals were causing faults in supply lines only in an area under Bhopal North zone located near the Upper Lake.

The minister said he had told officials concerned to repair the supply lines by insulating them. 

Mr Singh also claimed instances of power tripping have reduced in the state if compared to the situation under the previous BJP government.

The issue had come into limelight when an official of a state-run power company, during a meeting on June 14, had claimed flying bats were creating faults in electricity supply lines along the Upper Lake in Bhopal.

The official had claimed bats hanging on power supply lines sometime cause short circuits, which ultimately lead to outages.