One literally shudders to know that at a time when the power crisis has reached its peak, the menace of bureaucratic red-tapism have not only caused considerable delay in the implementation of two important projects but the delay has now also raised their construction cost. The projects were Nandipur and Chichon Ki Maliaan power plants, both of which would have played a significant role in lessening the current supply and demand gap by adding 900MW to the national grid. The casualness of the federal Law Ministry is also to be held responsible for this harmful delay. Already, the situation is such that the power companies are now threatening to cut off electricity supply because of the non-payment of their dues by the government. One would have thought that the federal government had taken on the electricity crisis on a war footing when it assumed office three years and a half back and such projects at least would have been now completed. The delay is criminal. The public is suffering because of an acute shortage of electricity, industrial units have been shutting down, with some entrepreneurs even planning to shift their plants out of the country the entire spectrum of life is receiving a serious blow and the government is unable to sort these simple things out. This is just inexcusable Can one hope that the bottlenecks would soon be removed?