John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, April 25: The South Andaman region is facing the worst power management and distribution in the last several decades because of which residents of South Andaman are witnessing dozens of power cuts everyday during day time, which not only disrupt businesses but also cause huge inconvenience to the public. Worst hit are the students of Class X and Class XII who are facing their final exams.
As the power crisis has started to pinch people of South Andaman region, the Electricity Department of Andaman and Nicobar Administration today urged the public to judiciously use electricity to deal with the current power crisis. However the department only mentioned about the peak hour power crisis and there was no mention of day time power cuts in the press note.
Andaman Sheekha team spoke to some prominent people in this regard and tried to know more about this power cut issue.
Mr. D. Ayyappan, State Secretary, CPI (M) A&N State Organising Committee told Andaman Sheekha that raising serious concern on Power disruption issue of Port Blair city the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has recently demanded uninterrupted power supply at Port Blair and South Andaman rural areas.
“CPI (M) has noticed that most of the time the power disruption lasts several hours at a stretch. Besides studies of students, business community, media, office work, etc. are all badly affected due to the sudden and unscheduled power cuts. While the people are put to intolerable hardship due to the power disruption, the Electricity Department and the Administration do not come forward with any explanation for such power cuts. The CPI(M) is going to stage a massive agitation against such power cuts soon,” Mr. D. Ayyappan said.
The President of Andaman and Nicobar Territorial Congress Committee (ANTCC) has also demanded uninterrupted power for the people of South Andaman.
“This is sad to note that in Port Blair city people are witnessing so much power cuts, which is way more than any other place in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Department keeps on giving explanations that until and unless power storage units are installed for Solar Power Plants, things will not improve. Rich people can make alternate arrangements during power cuts, how will a poor person survive?” questioned Mr. Rangolal Halder, the president of ANTCC.
Mr. Govind Ram, Retd. DANICS officer alleged that about 80 percent of the Electricity Department is being run in CDC. He said that posts in the Electricity Department must be regularized so that it will give authority to officials and they will discharge their duties properly. “In Andaman windmill was unsuccessful, even Kalpong hydropower does not provide a constant amount of power. Andaman needs fuel based power plants. Proper augmentation of power generation has not been done by Administration. In my opinion this is being done deliberately to privatize the department,” he alleged.
Talking to this press, Miss Mariyam Bibi, Former Chairperson of SAZP and present ZP member said that people have been suffering heavily due to frequent power cuts. Students are facing exams and during this summer season they are also not getting any relief from Power cuts. Even in schools, students have to sit without power. “I have been told that the officials of the Electricity Department are not getting some crucial spare parts on time, which is one of the reasons. If the department does not get spare parts on time how the department will manage the show,” she said.
However, when contacted, an officer of the Electricity Department told Andaman Sheekha that due to absence of power storage units in the Solar Power Plant there is a significant drop in power supply, whenever the sky is cloudy, which is leading to such power crisis. The Officer added that setting up a power storage unit for the solar power plant is the only solution.
“We don’t have any other options. We need a Solar Battery backup system to rectify power cut problems. Some projects are in the pipeline to boost the Solar Battery backup system but it will take time to finalize,” the officer added.
