Bengaluru: Unscheduled power cuts have returned to haunt the city residents. Ironically this has come barely few days after the Energy Minister gave an assurance that such load shedding would not happen in the city.
In the last few days areas such as HSR Layout, Ramamurthynagar, Banaswadi, Indiranagar, Tippasandra, Murugeshpalya and Kammanahalli have been witnessing frequent power cuts.
HSR Layout resident Rashmi Choudary pointed out, “There have been continuous power disruptions from 7 am onwards on Wednesday. Prior to that we were happy that power cuts have come down, but now they are back.” Voicing a similar opinion Rajeev C, a resident of Ramamurthynagar said, “Power cuts have been very disturbing, considering the city is turning hotter day by day. When will this saga end?”
When Deccan Chronicle brought the issue with the BESCOM, one of their officials said, “We had faced certain power shortage on Monday and Tuesday. There are two BTS from where we were expecting 1,000 mega watts, but for last two days we were receiving only 400 mega watts. But the good news is that things are getting back to normal from Wednesday.”
Regarding power cuts on Wednesday, the official said, “In many areas quarterly maintenance work is going on, so there were power cuts at few areas like Chandapura, Electronics City. Again maintenance will be taken up in south Bengaluru, so there will be power cuts in those areas. These works have to be taken up, we request people to cooperate.”
Street lights on the blink for six months
When Sanjay Kumar (name changed), an IT employee, decided to take up the issue of street lights not functioning in his area, little did he know about the travails he would have to undergo. The
streetlights from Brand Factory to Forum Value Mall in Whitefield (a distance of nearly three kilometres) have not been functioning for a nearly six months. With roads in bad condition, the motorists have a tough time while driving during night.
Initially, when Sanjay informed the BBMP through WhatsApp, they said his request cannot be attended to. He then followed it up with a senior official, who promised fix the street lights on a priority basis, but nothing happened. Sanjay said, “I lodged a complaint through WhatsApp on August 5 and later I received several calls in this regard. Then I was told that they cannot resolve the issue. When I called up the helpline number I was asked to come down to their office. I then raised the issue on their Facebook page.”
Later I met a senior official, who called his deputy and reprimanded him for his lackadaisical attitude and assured me that the issue will be resolved at the earliest, but the situation is as is, he added.
To make matters worse for motorists, the civic authorities recently dug up the roads to lay pipes and have not been restored the road. Sanjay observed, “Perhaps the authorities are waiting for some untoward incident to happen.” It may be recalled that in May BBMP had conducted rounds to take note of the functionality of streetlights, but there is little change in ground situation.
