188 families at MKB nagar living in dark due to power cut

Chennai: As many as 188 families in MKB Nagar have been in dark, literally, for the last two days. These people were living in a community hall near Mullai Nagar bus stand at Mahakavi Bharathiyar Nagar for over seven years.

“We have been living here for the past seven years without any basic amenities after being shifted from Ambedkar Nagar and Satyamurthy Nagar due to frequent fire accidents,” said Subramanian a resident. The slum clearance board promised them to provide alternative site but so far it remains only on paper, he said.

Subramanian said that they had been taking power from the service connection provided to community hall for all these years. “Now all of a sudden Tangedco workers came here on Tuesday eve­ning and disconnected the power,” he said.

Karpagam, a daily wager said that children and old people were suffering without power supply. “Until the slum clearance board provides us the promised te­n­ements, we have no oth­er place to reside other than the community hall. How come we live till then without electricity?” she asked.

A Tangedco official said that the power connections were disconnected to the hamlets as they were illegally taking it from the service connection provided to the community hall. “Moreover, the illegal tapping of electricity might endanger the lives of the people who are handling it,” the official pointed out when queried.