The well-meaning initiative of former team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s wife Sakshi Dhoni in pointing out prolonged power failures in Ranchi appeared to be a goof-up after the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) on Friday clarified that the power cut was planned and the local authorities were informed about it well in advance.
Not only this, officials from the JSEB said that all local newspapers were informed about the planned power cut for installation of a transformer in the vicinity of the locality where Dhoni has built his farmhouse. “A new transformer was installed in the area on Thursday. We had clearly mentioned to all the local authorities and newspapers that power supply will be interrupted in the areas around Pandra as a preventive measure from 9.30am to 4.30pm,” said Deputy General Manager, JUVNL, MP Yadav. Sakshi took to Twitter on Thursday to highlight the sorry state of electricity supply in the State capital. At around 4,37pm, she tweeted, “People in Ranchi experience power cuts every single day. It ranges from four to seven hours daily. There has been no electricity for the past five hours today; that is 19th September 2019. There is no reason for power cut as the weather is good and there is no festival. I hope the problem is addressed by the concerned authorities.”
Her tweet went viral on the microblogging website in no time. By the time this report was filed, her tweet was already retweeted 503 times and liked by 2513 Twitteratis. Out of the 182 replies to her tweet, some were in her support while some looked like efforts to troll her. The reply thread to the tweet got flooded with memes within hours. One of the Twitteratis also replied to the tweet with a picture of vernacular daily carrying news about the planned power cut.
While the electricity department here managed to defend the power cut on Thursday, it cannot be denied that the State capital has witnessed major power failures in the recent past. Residents of many posh localities of the city had to suffer due to load shedding last month. Officials from JBVNL said that power supply will be interrupted for a couple of hours in Hatia and surrounding areas on Saturday due to maintenance works.