Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, Oct 16: Several areas in the city have been vitnessing indiscriminate power cuts since the last few weeks. Residents in areas like Birchgunj, Pahadgaon, Dollygunj have been complaining about frequent power cuts about which neither they are informed in advance nor any power cut schedules are published in newspapers by the Electricity Department.
In many houses, parents are working from home while their wards are attending online classes. Due to frequent power cuts, normal life has now gone for a toss, students are worst hit.
Residents of Birchgunj, Brookshabad allege that the High Tension Cable passing through their area is very old to bear enough load now, and issuing more commercial connections to Quarry and crusher units, the cable has got affected, “Sometimes there are sparks in the cable line which results in 2-3 hours long power cuts,” said a resident of Brichgunj.
Meanwhile, the long power cut on Diwali night left many people upset in the Brichgunj, Brookshabad area. “We were unable to enjoy the festival to the fullest as there was no power, all plans were just ruined,” said Mrs. Ram of Birchgunj.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the Superintendent Engineer, Electricity Department, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Er. Ajit Bernard, he said that there is some stability issue in their grid and the Electricity Department is working on it.
However, even after asking repeatedly when the problem will be resolved, instead of giving any timeframe, he said that it will be done soon.
During this corona pandemic people are mostly staying indoors but these several hours long power cuts are making life miserable for public, even inverters installed in many houses can’t bring any relief for public. Hope the Electricity Department will wake up and provide uninterrupted power supply to Islanders, which is a basic need.
