Summer is back, so are power cuts

Rajiv Bhatia

Zirakpur, March 21
With the onset of summer, residents of Zirakpur and surrounding areas have started facing power cuts ranging from 4 to 6 hours a day. With tubewells becoming non-operational due to power cuts, water supply to the area has been badly affected.

Sources in the MC said, “Of the 31 tubewells, only 10 have generators and the remaining ones run on electricity.”

Residents of various housing apartments, colonies and villages within the municipal limits have demanded that the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) should give prior information about the power cuts, so that they get time to arrange some alternative source of energy.

Sumita, a resident of Dhakoli, said power cuts of at least six hours were being imposed everyday.

“I find it difficult to help my son (for board exams) in his preparation for the annual examination,” she added.

It’s a harrowing time for shopkeepers too. Madan Mohan, a shopkeeper in Zirakpur, said, “With frequent outages, it has become difficult to run the business.”

Rajan Khurana, a resident of Baltana, said, “We are used to such power cuts in June and July, but cuts at this time of the year make no logic.”

“Why necessary steps are not being taken to ease the ongoing power crisis?” he asked.

Residents said they had asked the MC officials to install generators, but their repeated pleas were turned down.

With the surging power demand, the load on transformers had also increased, said a PSEB official.

“We are imposing power cuts as per the instructions of the controller,” he added.