New Delhi
27 November 2007
The Standing Committee on Energy has abandoned its suggestion
for different time zones for checking the peak shortages and saving daylight. It has,
instead, asked the Ministry of Power to consider different "working hours" for the states
in the east and west of the country.
The parliamentary committee agreed with the Ministry of Power's contention that
introducing more than one time zone may pose practical problems on account of "low
literacy level" in the country. The committee has given the Ministry six months to come
up with a solution of the problem.
There exists a time difference between Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat of about two
hours but there is only a single Indian Standard Time (IST) for the whole country.
The Standing Committee on Energy, chaired by Mr Gurudas Kamat of the Congress party,
on Monday said in a report that adopting different time zones in the country may also
affect departments like Railways, transport and aviation, Indian Meteorology
Department, and communication.
"[More than one time zone will involve] many difficulties in arriving at a consensus to
this effect between various players like state governments and various ministries," the
report read, while not drastically improving the saving of daylight hours or keeping the
peak shortages in check.
The Standing Committee on Energy had suggested the Ministry of Power to
consider other solutions like having different time zones for the country and staggerring
the office timings and school timings by about one or two hours so that peak hour
shortages were also staggerred.
The peak power shortages have increased from 11.8 per cent in 2001-2002 to 13.9 per
cent in 2006-2007.
The Ministry of Power, in its reply to the committee, relied on the views of a panel
constituted by the secretary of the Department of Science and Technology to examine
relevant issues. The panel comprised the representatives of certain public sector
organisations like the National Physical Laboratory (NPL.)
The Ministry cited the NPL as saying that there will be no drastic improvement by
incorporating two time zones. The NPL felt that "a more pragmatic way" may be that the
eastern states resort to time schedule of 8 am to 4.20 pm and the western states follow a
time schedule of 9 am to 5.30 pm.
"Instead of adopting different time zones in India, people in various parts of the country
should change their lifestyle by adjusting their timings of their own regions. This is an
easier way to address the problem rather than to have different time zones in different
parts of India," the Ministry of Power reasoned.
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