Frequent outages in the sweltering weather and no sight of rain has sparked power riots in Uttar Pradesh, with enraged people fighting pitched battle with police and setting power sub-stations on fire to demand electricity.
Power cuts mean no water, no fans and no air-conditioners.“The power crisis has created law and order problem as many incidents of violence have been reported from various places of Uttar Pradesh. Over 300 people have been arrested for vandalizing power sub-stations and beat up power employees,” a senior government official, Kamal Saxena, told reporters in lucknow on Wednesday.
Irate people staging protest against frequent outages fought pitched battle with police in Bijnor, 300 km south-west of lucknow, injuring 10 cops on Tuesday.
The area was not getting electricity for last 36 hours. When people went to sub-station to lodge complaint the staff ran away and this further enraged them They blocked national highway. When police cane charged them, people pelted stones at police in which 10 cops were injured.
In Aligarh students of a college stopped a passenger train demanding electricity. In Ghaziabad people beat up employees of a power sub-station protesting frequent outages. In Kanpur people staged road blockade.
In Barabanki, 30 km south-east of lucknow people set a sub-station on fire. In lucknow, resident of Alamnagar area blocked lucknow-Kanpur road to protest load shedding. The angry residents also resorted to violence for over an hour. Police had to be called in to disperse them.
lack of rains and prevailing heat wave conditions have aggravated the situation. lucknow broke a 60 year record when it touched 38.1 degree Celsius, highest temperature in August since 1952. Kanpur recorded 37 Degree C and Varanasi 36.9 degree C.
With moisture in the air adding to the woes of people the demand for electricity has increased. Against the demand of 13,000 MW of electricity at the peak time only 10,000 MW was available thus forcing officials to go for regular power rostering.
Many regions of Uttar Pradesh, a home to 20 million people, are getting electricity for only six-eight hours.Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in a statement said that his government was trying its best to provide quality electricity. “Many of our units have stopped functioning because of paucity of coal. Our thermal units are not getting sufficient supply forcing two units to close down,” Yadav said in a statement.
“We have asked for additional supply from the NDA Government but are yet to get sufficient supply. We are forced to go for rostering as we do not have enough electricity at our disposal,” Chief Minister said.
BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that it is irony when the state is reeling under acute power crisis the districts where prominent ministers in the Government belong are getting uninterrupted power. “This skewed power distribution has aggravated the situation further,” he said.