JOIN USEven as temperature soared to new highs in the national capital, Power outages continued on Monday across the City, leading to a number of protests in many areas.
The worst affected area was east Delhi, which reported at least 6 to 7 hour-long power cuts. Residents of Sunder Nagari blocked the G T Road in protest. Protests were also held at Turkman Gate, Chandni Chowk and many areas of Delhi. The issue also helped political parties to score points over thier rivals.
Unscheduled power cuts continued till late night, forcing people to spend sleepless nights. The private power distribution companies (discoms) blamed the Delhi Transco for the crisis and in many areas the local complaint numbers of BYPL and BRPL were not responding.
Delhi Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar Srivastava said the situation will improve in 25 days. “The department officials are claiming that it will take about 20-25 days to improve the situation. We have the electricity but we are not able to restore the supply. There is a shortage of merely 300-400 mw,” Srivastava told reporters here.
The Delhi government offices turned off their air conditioners for an hour from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm following the orders of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. At Delhi secretariat, the cooling effect of air conditioner was enhanced to maximum before it was turned off, so that the officials can survive the heat for the next one hour.
Politics also continued over power crisis as city Congress leaders organised a dharna in front of the office of the chief secretary on Monday. Party MLAs and former MLAs met Srivastava over the issue.
“We are not satisfied with his answers and we are protesting it. The BJP and the AAP are responsible for this crisis,” said BJP state unit’s chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma.
The AAP blamed the NDA government for the crisis. “It is shocking that the Delhi administration, which is currently being directly controlled by the BJP-led central government, is resorting to desperate measures like rationing of electricity instead of addressing the real issue of ensuring adequate electricity supply across the city,” the party said in a statement.
The BJP reacted sharply on the AAP’s allegations and held the party responsible for the crisis. The BJP leaders also lashed out on the Delhi electricity regulator and sought removal of the DERC chairman P D Sudhakar.
“It’s all fault of the AAP. They are blaming us for this crisis but can they tell the people of Delhi what was their Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal doing when summer action plan was to be prepared? They completely failed to make any future plan to prevent power crisis,” said BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana.