Villagers lock substation to protest power cuts

BIJNOR: Troubled with frequent power cuts, residents of 40 villages of Chandak town in Bijnor staged a protest outside the electricity substation by locking it on Tuesday afternoon. The villages claimed that they are getting electricity for barely four hours a day. They said long power cuts in this heat has made life unbearable for them.
On their part, officials expressed their helplessness as the supply coming to the area is very poor.
Talking about the protest, Rajendra Singh, general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), who spearheaded the protest, said, “Chandak has 40 villages under it but sadly the villagers get power for barely four hours and that too, it is not constant. Ideally, we should get electricity for 12 hours from 4 am to 4 pm according to the electricity department’s schedule but that isn’t happening.”
Even when the electricity supply is there, the voltage is so low that farmers cannot run their tubewells for drawing water, said Singh.
The villagers locked the substation and did not let the officials work on Tuesday. “If our demands are not met by June 13, then we will block roads and stage protests across the district,” said Vijay Kumar, another villager.
Rajveer Singh, a villager from Syohara village, said, “The voltage in our area is so low that even tubelights and fans do not to work leave alone tubewells.”
When TOI contacted Muneshwar Dayal, joint engineer, electricity substation, Chandak, he said, “We have a substation of 20 KV for all the 40 villages. Though we are providing supply for 10 hours, the voltage is very low due to which the tubewells are not able to function. But we cannot do much, as this is the supply which is coming from the main centre in Lucknow.”