Lucknow reels under acute power crisis

LUCKNOW: Officially, the state capital is rostering-free but the situation here is no better than other parts of UP with prolonged and frequent power cuts caused by faults in the power supply mechanism.
Many localities in the city including posh ones have been reeling under power crisis for the past several days. Tuesday was no different with 2-10 hours power outages reported from several parts of the city.
Residents of Hewett Road, Model House and Jogendra Pathak Road complained they were witnessing power cuts at night for the past few days. They also complained that repeated calls made to the Hussainganj sub-station located at Burlington Crossing remain unanswered.
"For the past couple of days, electricity supply has been irregular. Worst part is that the power cuts have now started to take place in the nights," said Sunanda Ghosh, a resident of Model House. Abhijeet, a resident of Hewett Road, said "Power cuts also affect students." Similar complaints were received from Jogendra Pathak Road and La Touche Road localities.
In Neelmatha and Vijaynagar, Mrityunjay Pandey, retired senior official of the National Thermal Power Corporation, said, "The current power crisis is because of wrong priorities set by senior officials." He said resident paying electricity bills timely were entitled to regular power supply.
Posh areas such as Sapru Marg and Gomtinagar's Vijay Khand too had to bear the brunt of power woes. On Sapru Marg, there was no electric supply from 7am till evening. In Vijay Khand, Gomtinagar, residents complained frequent power cuts for the past one week due to fault in the local transformer.
Irregular power supply in Old City areas such as Thakurganj irked residents, who despite repeated complaints to the officials, got no tangible relief. Jankipuram too has been reeling under severe power crisis. Apart from unscheduled power cuts, the locality is plagued with low voltage. "The transformers are of poor quality and it seems they are unable to bear the load of the entire area," they said.
Sevagram Colony situated on the busy Station Road was hit by power crisis. Sagar, a resident of the area, said, "Electric supply was disrupted late Monday night, and even till Tuesday evening, power supply was not restored. It is like we are living in a village, with only 6 hours of power supply."
Old City areas of Maulviganj and Rakabganj were also in the grip of severe power shortage. Wasim, a resident of Maulviganj, said, "Power situation has been deteriorating with every passing day. At times, it seems the state of affairs will only worsen. None of the officials, who have been made in-charge of the area are accessible in the hour of crisis. This results in protests from the masses, who are then unnecessarily blamed for violating law and order in the Old City area." News of disrupted power supply came in from localities like Vikasnagar, Indiranagar, Aliganj, Sitapur Road, Rajajipuram, Talkatora, Fatehganj, Ganeshganj, Krishnangar, Banthara, and many other areas.