Residents reach KSEB office in Aluva with beds & pillows, protest

Kochi: Widespread power disruptions are leading to tension between consumers and KSEB officials in the district. In the latest incident, a group of residents from various parts of Aluva staged a protest at KSEB's electrical section office at Thottakkattukara in the town in the early hours of Tuesday.Officials at the office said the issue began on Monday night. "We have four feeder lines — two each from Aluva powerhouse and Alangad feeder — which supply power to residents and other institutions within our jurisdiction. Just like other parts of the state, power consumption was at its peak in our limits on Monday night. It caused some disruptions. Though we managed to provide supply to most areas by regulating supply to certain places, the situation went out of hand around 2am on Tuesday when a pickup van rammed an electric pole near Aluva powerhouse and the feeder line from there was snapped," an official said."Residents from various places came to our office and protested. Some of them came up with beds and pillows, saying they would "sleep inside our office". We managed to provide supply to every area with the support of facilities and staff from neighbouring electrical sections. By 6am, we could restore supply fully. The situation arose out of unforeseen reasons including the pickup van accident. We won't blame local residents for staging protests. However, we won't be able to restore supply in certain circumstances," the official said.Though there were reports that some residents burst crackers in front of the office as a mark of protest, the officials denied any such incident.In Kochi city, residents had staged protests at various KSEB offices following frequent power disruptions. "Residents staged protests in our offices in Edappally and Cheranellore areas. Anticipating a surge in consumption during summer, we already replaced some of our transformers with higher-capacity ones. We are still going on with such works to avoid power disruptions," a senior official said.