While the tourists from neighbouring States like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab enjoyed rain and slight snowfall that occurred in Dhanaulti, Mussoorie belt along with the other upper reaches of the State on the evening of the New Year, the people of Dehradun reeled under severe spells of power cuts, dragging for hours, after the rain lashed the city.
Predicament of those residing on the outskirts of the city was the gravest as power eluded them since the evening till late morning hours. “The New Year celebration, we lined up for the evening, was wasted away due to one of the severest power outages we faced. Things did not improve in the morning either, as power kept coming and going at regular intervals,” said Vivek, an aggrieved resident of Harrawala, a place located on the fringe of the city.
Things were not much better in the central parts of the city either. “Power went off once the rain started in the evening and was restored as late as 1 am. We had no power in the morning too. Things are yet to be normal in the evening of Monday. To compound our woes, water supply has remained disrupted,” said Suman, a resident of Salawala.
In Dehradun, several areas like Rajpur Road, Salawala, Raipur, Shivlok Colony, Vikaslok, Vani Vihar, Badripur, East Canal Road, Harrawala, Premnagar, Mohit Nagar, Ballupur and Nehru Colony are bearing the brunt of the power outages for years. Things turn all the more grave when the weather turns inclement.
However, surprisingly, Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited officials, when approached, denied that power cuts had happened anywhere across the city and its outskirts. PC Dhyani, a senior UPCl officer, said that they had received no report of power cuts from anywhere in Dehradun till 4.30 pm on Monday. However, he added that local snags might have caused power cuts in some areas.
Dhyani said that to bridge the deficit, 11.629 MU power had been purchased from the Centre-run hydro power units on Monday, adding that following low power generation in state- based hydro power units and increase in power demand, UPCl would purchase 0.189 MU from Indian Energy Exchanges to bridge the deficit on Tuesday.