Despite Chief Minister Harish Rawat's assurance that the Government is committed to provide round the clock power supply to its citizens, unscheduled load shedding coupled with local faults continued to hit normal life in different parts of the region.
Disturbance in the power supply that was interestingly not visible during the election period, has after completion of the two month long election process, now become a routine affair here, hitting normal life in different parts of the region badly. The power supply which remained disrupted in different parts of the Haldwani region including the Gagodam Road, Kushumkhera, and RK Tent House areas to name a few for over five hours on Saturday since 1 pm, continued to remain disrupted at regular intervals till late Sunday evening.
According to the figures provided by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl), whereas gross availability of power in Uttarakhand is around 32.88 million unit (MU) per day i.e. about 10.13 MU per day from domestic sources, about 14.76 MU per day from Central pool and rest about 7.99 MU per day from other sources, the demand for power has gone up to 35.26 MU per day in the hill state.
The fact of the matter is that demand for electricity which has gone upto 35.26 MU per day as mentioned above from around 32 MU per day as recorded till previous week, may go up in the coming days if atmospheric temperature rises further.
The concern is that unscheduled power cuts lead to disruption in smooth supply of drinking water supply particularly in urban areas which are dependent on power driven drinking water distribution system to a large extent.
More so, delay in rectifying fault in electricity distribution system only adds to the woes of the citizens. The situation of power supply due to unscheduled power cuts coupled with local faults as has been reported is not less concerning in the hilly areas.