Rabindranath Biswas
Diglipur, Dec. 07: Leaders and workers from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress Party, Diglipur today jointly staged a dharna in front of the gate of the Electricity Department’s Office at Sitanagar today.
As per report, the dharna was mounted by leaders of these two major parties in the wake of the Electricity Department’s alleged decision of shifting a power generator set from Diglipur Power House to Swarajdweep.
When asked to comment on the matter, Mrs. Sunity Halder, District President, BJP, Diglipur elaborated on the justification towards the objection they raised against this whimsical decision of shifting a power generator set from Diglipur Power House to Swarajdweep. The generator in question is not a surplus one and which is kept as a standby electricity generator which is very much essential as the area of Diglipur Tehsil is considerably very large, she argued. On the other hand, dry season is nearing and it will be unwise to solely depend on the power supply generated at Kalpong Dam. Mrs. Sunity Halder said. “Every year we have to experience the wrath of the long power-cuts during the summer season because of the mismanagement of the department. And any generator may develop snag suddenly thereby causing acute shortage of power supply; a standby generator can be used to avert complete black-out situation”, the BJP District President warned. Besides, during February/March 2024 there will be Board Exams for students and frequent power cuts will undeniably create great difficulties to their studies, she further claimed. “We can’t expect sufficient power supply from Kalpong project in the dry season as water level will plummet significantly in the dam and flow of water will not be sufficient to run all the turbines at a time”, rued the leaders of the political parties present in the dharna. Consumption of electricity will be increasing significantly with the start of the dry working season requiring even more additional generators for Diglipur, Mrs. Sunity Halder further said. She has shot up a letter to the Honourable Lieutenant Governor, A & N Islands to this effect as well.
When contacted, the Executive Engineer, Electricity Department, Sitanagar, Diglipur refrained from commenting on the matter and only told Andaman Sheekha Daily that it is the decision of the Administration and it isn’t in the purview of his capacity to utter a single word on the matter, he said.
However, when the report last came in, the dharna was still in progress and the protesters would not move from the place until the higher authorities of Administration would arrive on the dharna site with a written assurance that the Electricity Department, Diglipur shall not shift any power generator from Diglipur Power House to anywhere, Mr. Dipankar Mistry, Pramukh, Panchayat Samiti, Diglipur threatened.