Bhopal: Power maintenance down the drain

BHOPAL: “Now that it has started raining after three months of scorching heat, we are all happy but at the same time, we keep our fingers crossed as it starts raining fearing that electricity supply may be off anytime. As it starts raining, my daughter rushes downstairs to remind me that I should get an inverter installed at home because not only her studies are affected but my computer will also be off.Since I am working from home, I feel she is right”, said Atul Tiwari, a software engineer, who lives in a society in Trilanga.
Atul is not wrong in apprehending that every time it rains, the power supply in the city is disrupted. On Wednesday, major parts of the city plunged into darkness after heavy rain and it was only after the rain receded that supply was restored one by one in many areas. However, discom officials say outages during the initial phase of monsoon is natural but as the rains become a routine, power outages during rains will be rare.
People, however, have a valid question. When the power discoms keep electricity supply off for hours in pre-monsoon season in the name of “maintenance”, why should there be disruption in power supply during the first few days of monsoon rainfall either.
“For the last two months, they have been keeping electricity supply off in different areas for 8 hours despite the unprecedented spell of heat which we had this summer but as usual, electricity supply was disrupted as it started raining on Wednesday. And, if the officials are saying it happened on Wednesday only, they are wrong. When it rained heavily on Sunday evening or Monday, there was load-shedding in our area not only during the rainfall but twice later in the night and on both occasions, we had to wake up from sleep as it was very stuffy”, said Ashok Nayak, a resident of E-8, Arera Colony.