People in Uttarakhand have been facing severe inconvenience due to recurring power outages ranging in duration from two to five hours or more almost daily. With the mercury level rising, people in the State capital too are struggling to cope with intermittent power cuts. The rising heat combined with the power cuts has exacerbated the distress of the public. This combination has affected the daily lives of the people who are facing varied problems in their domestic and professional lives.
Meenu Bhalla, a housewife and a resident of Old Survey Road said, “The power cuts are so long that I and other people in the locality are not able to complete our daily household work on time. There is no proper supply of water due to which there is insufficient water available to people for washing, cooking, bathing and other household chores. We either get up early to store water or order a water tanker to at least complete the necessary work.” Santosh, who works as a domestic help said, “I do not have any power back-up at home so when there is a power cut I and many others have to sit in the verandah or under a tree or in any place which is cooler than the indoors. We spend many a sleepless nights due to power cuts as we spend such nights fanning our children so that they can sleep peacefully or sit on the terrace where we spend the nights talking or waiting for the electricity to restore.”
Rishabh Anand, who runs a cyber cafe said, “Due to long power cuts I am facing loss in my business. The inverters also stops working after a few hours as they don't get time to charge up for the next day and the computers, internet and other equipment at my cyber café are unable to work for long without power supply.”Interacting with various residents of the State capital, the correspondent found that the public wants the State Government to look into this issue seriously and take effective measures to ensure disruption-free power supply.