JOIN USPeople sore as temperatures soar
Irked over prolonged power cuts and shortage of water, people in several parts of the State have been targetting officials of the two departments and have also damaged some power sub-stations.
An agitated mob, a few days back, tried to set ablaze an executive engineer of the power department in Baghpat over power cuts. The engineer was saved by timely intervention by the police. Thrashing of power department employees in the rural areas and smaller districts have become a common thing.
The situation has become so grim that the pwer engineers have refused to attend to office in the rural areas and smaller towns fearing attacks from the people. “We are easy targets for the people as we are at the power sub-stations’’, said an engineer in Lucknow. The Power Engineers’ Association has demanded security for the employees.
Inability to meet demand
The state government has directed the officials to ensure that the villages get power for 18 hours daily. The officials however have expressed their inability to meet the demand owing to the huge gap between demand and supply.
“There is a huge shortfall of 1,500 to 2,000 MW in the state despite heavy import from the central pool”, said an official. The state power officials have also been warned against the overdrawals from the central pool. While the villages have been getting power for barely six to eight hours, even the big cities with the exception of the state capital, have been experiencing power cuts for over 10 hours. Meanwhile the death toll in the ongoing heat wave across UP has reached 30, according to reports reaching here on Wednesday. Large parts of state are reeling under intense heat wave conditions with mercury soaring to over 46 degree celsius at some places.
‘El Nino’ not to blame
Even as a truant monsoon raised concerns over the prospects of Kharif crop, meteorologists here on Wednesday refused to give credence to the theory that the ‘El Nino’ impact could be the factor behind its slow progress in the country, reports PTI from Pune.
Deputy Director General (Weather Forecasting) A B Muzumdar said: “This phenomenon occurs after every three to four years but it has no direct cause and effect relationship with the monsoons in India,” he said.