Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Will power holiday put an end to unscheduled cuts?

— Photo S. Thanthoni

Turning to nature: With the power cut on, these senior citizens try to catch some fresh air wafting through windows.

CHENNAI: Two days after it came into force, most residents in the city seem to have taken the ‘power holiday’ in their stride. Many households have also started making enquiries about the cost of inverters and portable generator sets.

The response of the residents to the load shedding schedule of an hour in the city and two hours in the suburbs ranged from the need to have given more time for the households and on why localities which otherwise are part of the city have been classified suburbs for this purpose.

G. Premanand, a resident of Subramaniam Street, Purasawalkam, said resorting to ‘power holiday’ without giving ample time to the public to make arrangements, during summer, created hardship to the households, particularly those with senior citizens and children.

However, people like Mr. Premanand are pleased about the prompt restoration of power supply after one hour.

B. Rajendra Prasad, a resident of Ambattur, said, “My area went without electricity for two hours from noon on Tuesday. Previously, there was frequent unannounced power cut. But the scheduled power cut has facilitated the residents to plan their daily chores accordingly.”

Several residents in the suburbs were sore over the “discriminatory attitude” of the TNEB to go for two hours of power cut compared to one hour for city localities.

V. Santhanam, former councillor of Pallavaram Municipality, questioned the rationale of power holiday for two hours in the suburbs when the electricity charges were uniform in both the city and suburbs.

“We are also bound by the same tariff as residents in the city, then why this discrimination?” asked S. Vijaya, a resident of Padi.

Some residents also expressed the hope that the power holiday would put a stop to unscheduled power cuts.

A few of them like H. Chandra Bose, a resident of Kolathur, have already installed inverters.

Even while noting that the inverter takes care, to some extent, both scheduled and unscheduled power cuts, Mr. Bose said power cuts would only benefit those dealing in inverters and UPS.

There was also confusion among residents of some localities about the timing of the power cut in there area. Padmavathy Raghavan, a resident of 5th Cross Street, Mahalakshmi Nagar, which comes under Division 153A (west Velachery), said the area experienced power cut for two hours.

Ms. Raghavan said as a result of their being attached to the Alandur sub-station, five streets in Mahalakshmi Nagar were treated as suburbs and went without power for two hours on Tuesday.

Residents of Kaveri Street, Saligramam, said they experienced power cut for about 40 minutes before the scheduled time of 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Sources in TNEB said it was owing to repair works taken up in the neighbourhood. Residents of Vellala Street, Purasawalkam, complained that their area went without power for nearly 12 hours from 10.30 p.m. on Monday.

This was in addition to the load shedding for an hour on Monday and Tuesday.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu