Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula powerless and thirsty

CHANDIGARH: After most parts of the Tricity remained plunged into darkness on Thursday night for up to five hours, power pangs continued to ail residents even on Friday as they had to spend the hot afternoon without coolers and ACs. Residents kept frantically calling up the electricity substations, but failed to get a clear picture.
There was no supply in sectors 18, 19, 20, 23, 27, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 45, 48 and 49.Power supply was also snapped in phases V and VI of Mohali while Panchkula and Kharar too were rendered powerless for about six hours on Thursday night. Over 15 sectors of the UT went dark at 5pm on Thursday due to a transformer failure. In other areas, cables and transformers gave in under overload.
On Saturday too, there will be a power cut in the Mansa Devi area from 9am to 12noon.
“My niece is preparing for competitive examinations. She has to study really hard, but irregular power cuts are making it difficult,” said Rajinder Kaur, a homemaker.
“My husband tried to call up the electricity department many a times, but they did not attend the calls. When we went there, no satisfactory answer was given to us,” said Suman Jha of Sector 19.
Amandeep Singh of Sector 18 said, “For the past one week there have been frequent power cuts in our locality. I am unable to enjoy my vacations.”
“It does seem that I live in a developed city like Chandigarh. Rather, it feels I live in a rural area where power cuts are daily affairs,” said Rahul of Sector 45.
Sneha Rawat of Sector 18, “We face main problem with kids as they can not tolerate summer heat for so long.”
Authorities need to do something immediately, feel the residents. “They should understand that not everyone has a generator and frequent cuts are a nuisance,” said Madan Lal, a resident of Sector 20.
Bhagel Singh of Sector 21 said, “Electricity department should do something to fix the problem.”
Narender of Sector 19 said, “It is getting very difficult to stay at home without electricity in this weather.”
9 sectors facing water shortage: MC
Gaurav Bhatia
CHANDIGARH: After conducting the survey to find reasons for water woes of city residents, municipal corporation has admitted that at least nine sectors are reeling under water shortage and low pressure. There is no immediate solution in sight as boosters need to be installed to increase pressure levels and UT administration is yet to transfer land to the civic body.
The sectors identified by UT's public health department include 44-C, 21-C&D, 34-C&D, 31-D, 7-B, 18, 41-D, 42-B and 39-B.
MC is regularly getting the complaints of low pressure, which forced it to carry out this field exercise earlier this month. MC has been unable to increase the pressure and it was decided to put up nine boosters in these sectors.
MC had already written to the administration, seeking allotment of land, but to no avail. Not only this, Rs 4.5 crore will be spent on installation of boosters. With the lethargic attitude of the administration, it seems that thousands of people living in these sectors will continue to suffer.
A resident of Sector 44, Kanwaljit Kaur said for the past many years they have been facing the problem of low water pressure but the administration doesn't seem serious about solving their issues otherwise it could have been sorted out long time ago.
“I live on the second floor and to get fresh water I have to get up early at 4 in the morning and don't know till how long will this go on,” said Sumati Kanwar of Sector 18. Vikram Bhandari of Sector 39 said he has failed to understand why all problems are faced by the people residing in southern sectors and all comforts are given to the northern sector residents. Resident of Sector 34 Amarjeet Kaur said high-ups of the administration don't live in this sector otherwise the problem would have been sorted out much early.
"To get water is a kind of race against time and now it has become a daily routine of me and the other members of my family but they are suffering without any fault of their," rued Vineeta Garg.
Superintending engineer of the public health department R C Diwan said nine sectors are facing the problem of water shortage. As soon as the land would be allotted to them by the administration, they will start installation of the boosters, he added.