Outages blow residents' fuse

CHANDIGARH: Frequent power cuts are making life miserable for city residents, with complaints shooting up from 40-50 to almost 150 to 200 daily, but all to no avail.
What has made residents resentful is that the electricity department despite announcing scheduled cuts, is not adhering to the timings. Many also complain that unscheduled power cuts are being imposed.
Worst affected are residents of southern sectors, who are also grappling with water shortage, a problem assuming huge proportions in sectors 40, 41, 42, 43, 45 and 46. "I have to get up at 4am to store water. But today the water pressure was so low that it was difficult to fill up even a single utensil," says Shruti Saxena, a resident of Sector 43.
Power, or rather the lack of it, is forcing a few residents to doubt if they are living in the city beautiful. "I have heard about electricity going off in villages at night and then resuming only in the morning. But now I feel like I am living in some far flung village as there was no power since 12 midnight to morning," says Charul Mehta, a resident of Sector 40.