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| Sleepless nights in Jammu, courtesy prolonged 'power outages' | | | Mishu Gupta
Jammu, June 18: A severe heat wave coupled with unbridled power cuts has raised tempers in the Jammu region and led to resentment against the Omar Abdullah government's "step-motherly" treatment to the region.
In this ongoing heat wave the power cuts ranging from 10 to 15 hours have added to the woes of people in the Jammu region, where the mercury is almost touching the over 44.50 Degree celcius. To the surprise of the jammuites the power curtailments are giving them unusual experiences since the heat wave gripped the whole north India. Though it is routine affair Jammu witnesses irregular power cuts from day 1 of the movement of Civil Secretariat Offices from here to Kashmir but this time the temperature has swollen to higher side and the heat has compounded miseries for the Jammuites. Almost every day, the protests are held almost every corner of the region, where protestors assail the government for making the people of Jammu region suffer the worst nightmares in the scorching heat and soaring temperatures with no respite from scheduled and unscheduled power cuts.
People across the region were nowadays being made to feel the pinch of frequent power cuts amid hot summer. Jammuites are in opinion that the authorities are not paying heed to their hardships. They also accuse the Omar led coalition government of discriminating against the region especially after recent drubbing in Lok Sabha polls.
"The government is discriminatory. Jammu always gets step-motherly treatment. I remember the time when the chief minister pulled the entire power department to Kashmir in winters to restore electricity supply, which was damaged due to snowfall. Extreme summer conditions are worse than cold. Why is he (Omar) not taking any action now?," an irked Jammuite said.
One Abhinav from Sanjaynagar in Gandhi Nagar locality said, "The complaints booked at customer care centres about power failure due to blown fuses or other defects remain unattended for hours. "Complaints booked during night remain unattended till late in the morning," he alleged and added that no one listens to complaint nor visits to the site leaving common masses in trouble.
Another agitated Jammuite added that despite so many complaints no one from concerning authorities is taking any action.
"The power often goes off at least seven to eight times during the day starting from as early as 8 am, and each power cut lasts for an hour to two hours. Most of the times during the day we have to go without electricity and water supply, even the inverters fail to function due to inadequate power supply for the batteries to be recharged," lamented rued Shaliani a house wife.
Many residents of the Gandhinagar and its adjoining localities maintained that the revised power regulations were unimaginative and arbitrary. "We have been left at the mercy of the Power department. Power cuts are imposed at will without taking into consideration the practical difficulties of the residents who have to face many problems due to frequent cuts of long durations," they complained. Not only the common masses but the business community too is suffering due to power cuts and in several commercial hubs in different parts of the city claimed that uncertain schedule of power cuts of longer duration during the day time had escalated their overhead expenses as the generators had to be run for longer durations which cost many times more as compared to the power supply. |
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