Defying the State Government’s clear cut instructions regarding uploading the daily power cut schedule on the power department’s website, the Uttarakhand power corporation limited (UPCl) has stopped providing information about the areas which are going to be affected due to load shedding on daily basis.
The instruction was given by the State Government so that the consumers could know about the timing and duration of the power cuts in their respective areas on daily basis. Now the officials concerned of the UPCl seem to provide information on weekly basis, that too about the gross availability and demand for power in the hill State with total load shedding to occur on a particular day on their official website: upcl.org.
For example, as on Sunday, December 29, even the daily gross availability and demand for power schedule presently has been updated only upto December 25. It is to note that earlier, the load shedding schedule used to be available on the UPCl website with vital information about the areas, which are going to be affected due to power cuts and duration of the load shedding. However, it is worth mentioning here that soon after assuming the power in Uttarakhand, nearly two years ago, it was the Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s initiative on bringing transparency in functioning of different departments in Uttarakhand but particulary in State power department. Keeping in view the public concerns regarding unscheduled load shedding, Chief Minister Vijay
Bahuguna has clearly told the officials concerned that all the power related information, including daily load shedding schedule, must be provided on the website so that the consumers could know the timing of power cuts. Interestingly, initially the officials concerned of the UPCl maintained the website by updating the daily load shedding schedule for few months. later, they stopped putting up the daily load shedding information highlighting which areas are going to be affected by the power cuts, on the website as has been seen now.
It has been complained many a times that people should be made aware even if there is no load shedding, said Shivcharan Singh, a professional here. Since the number of internet users has gone up quite significantly, putting the valuable information about daily load shedding plan on the UPCl website could welcome a positive development in the State Government. Following this information on power situation, we could adjust our daily work as this load shedding schedule used to give details about the duration of power cuts and names of the areas where the power cuts could possibly occur, added Singh.
But nowadays this valuable information in regard to daily load shedding affecting different areas is not available on the UPCl website , he added. However, the officials concerned of the UPCl said that they always try to update the website with the necessary information.