Power crisis hit citizens hard

PUNE: The ongoing power crisis has begun to hit citizens hard from dawn to dusk.
Hapless parents complained that power cuts at night woke up their infants, who wailed incessantly due to the heat.
Dr Suresh Doiphode, who owns a 25-bed hospital at Bibvewadi, said he had to postpone at least five surgeries since Tuesday because of electricity failure.
He is now seriously contemplating closing the hospital till the power situation stabilises.
Child expert Dilip Sarda, who also runs a 20-bed nursing home at Chandan Nagar, said he had to reschedule one surgery till the situation improved.
Activities such as pathological and blood tests have also been seriously hampered, according to him. “We haven’t been able to run our sonography and X-ray machines,� Sarda added.
Dr Vaijayanti Bapat, another paediatrician from Apte Road, said it was the saddest moment of her life as she had to throw away more than 100 doses of polio vaccine, which were damaged due to the power failure since Tuesday night.
Bapat, who registered a complaint with the MSEB at its Shivajinagar booth, is now seeking an explanation from the board as to why power was cut from the hospital despite paying Rs 6,500 as commercial charges.
S. Gaikwad, a society member in the Mantri Aangan housing society in Pingle Vasti, which houses over 200 flats, said there has been a severe problem in the water supply since the last couple of days. “As there was no power since last night till 2 p.m. on Wednesday,we couldn’t pump water to tanks on rooftops,� he explained.
Sree Kumar, a member of the Anand Nagar housing society in Sanghvi, said that all the 60 flats have been gripped by a severe shortage of water since last night.
Pappu Srivastava, the society secretary from Matashree Enclave in flow at Erandwane junction went haywire Wednesday as electric signals stopped functioning. Gokul Nagar, said that two water tankers have been asked to supply water in case of contingency. “The problem has been more severe in the last 3-4 days as we have no clue when the power supply will go off.�
Swantanu Paranjape, working with a e-com solution company, said his office has asked all its 120 employees to come to work next Sunday to make up for the loss in terms of working hours.
Ratnakar Shinde, housekeeper at a reputed hotel in Pune, said activities have not been affected as such because of sufficient backup, but warned that the situation might turn worse if the same continues for a couple of days more.
Manish Gaikwad, who takes stitching orders from a ready-made cloth vendor, decided to give a break to his 18 employees despite the fast-approaching deadline to deliver.
Anjali Mehta and her husband Shirish who run a marriage hall in Dhankawadi, said business has been severely affected as three parties have cancelled orders in the last five days.
However, bank managers said their ATM services continued to function normally as they have automated power back-up facility. on functioning.