Electricity in Mumbai

I dont live in a suburb of Mumbai but still I am considered to be living in Mumbai. I live around 50 kms away from Mumbai. Power cuts have become regular in the last one year. Slowly we have started accepting this as a way of life. Maharashtra was once upon a time had surplus power and it has a huge deficit. People and politicians blame the situation on various things. The Enron debacle being one of them, lack of foresight by the leaders. At present around 6 hrs of power cut is there in urban area and 12 hrs power cut in rural area. The citizens have learnt to accept this and live with it. From the reports I have read , things will start to improve ,if any action is taken today, only from 2008. The questions which come to my mind ?

1. The different billboards in Mumbai must be consuming lot of energy, I think they should be asked to go solar. They are exposed to sunlight continuously and they ,the big people ,have the money to put the solar panels.
2. Lighting for heritage buildings should also be considered on the same lines.
3. Reconsider free supply of electricity to farmers.
4. There is around 30-40% distribution losses , which needs to be controlled immediately.
5. I personally know of some people, educated who have their meters tampered , hand in glove with the electricity line man, and therefore they dont get a bill more than minimum. as a result they use electricity without any responsibility.
6. Most government institutions use electricity without any responsibility. Make an individual responsible in each department and give him incentive for reducing power consumption in his department. Most of the lights, fans ACs are on when even nobody is there. There is tremendous scope for tightening the belt without affecting the business.

See the irony of it , the analysts talk of making Mumbai a international business hub like Singapore or Hong Kong, and as I walk the streets of Dadar, there is no electricity.

Let there be light !