Powerless hours outrage Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: Over 16,000 households in 12 sectors, which get electricity from 33KV grid sub-station in Sector 34, had a harrowing time on Monday night and Tuesday due to frequent power breakdowns. The electricity department, however, claimed that consumers’ undeclared load hit the main supply.
All hot and bothered, many residents on Monday lodged complaints at the sub-station, which supplies power to parts of 12 sectors, including sectors 23, 35-B, 34, 21-C, 20-A, 33, 20-C, 21-A, 22, 45, 35 and 34-C.Abhinav of Sector 34 said, “There was a three-hour cut on Monday night and on Tuesday, there was no power between 8.30am and 1pm. I went to the complaint office in the morning and the official on duty said linemen had been sent to check the fault.”
With no one attending their calls, many residents kept groping in the dark. “I called up at the complaint office many times, but nobody answered my call. I fail to understand why they don’t respond,” said Sukanya Sharma of Sector 35. Radhika Sood, also a Sector 35 resident, said, “I could not sleep because of the power breakdown.”
On why the sectors plunged into darkness, superintending engineer, electricity, said overloading due to consumers’ undeclared load snapped the supply.
An electricity department official said, “In the last week of May, a self-declaration scheme was started under which consumers could submit letters with complaint centres, informing about extra load usage. Till now, only 12 letters have been received at the Sector 35 complaint centre.” When asked why the department was not launching a drive to check undeclared power load, another official said, “We don’t have enough manpower to conduct such checks.”