Ludhiana residents cry due to power crisis

Ludhiana, June 6, 2017: Unscheuled power cuts in several areas of the city including Durgapuri (Haibowal Kalan), Clock Tower, Mata Rani Road and Aggar Nagar are creating resentment among people.
The situation was worse on Sunday and Monday when two power grids got faulty due to failure of jumpers. As a result, the power supply remained affected for about 8-9 hours and power supply remained suspended in almost half of the city. The most affected areas included Gill road, Sreenh, Dugri, Haibowal, Amaltas, Bahadur-Ke and Balloke.
Even today, the frequent power cuts were taking place. The failure of power supply was also affecting the water supply. As a result, people have to suffer a lot.
A lot of city residents were seen either buying new generator sets or power invertors, or replacing the older ones. Thus, the prevailing situation proved a boon for those in the business of power invetors and generator sets.
When contacted, Narinderpal Singh Boparai Chief Engineer of Central Zone of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), Ludhiana told City Air News that there had arisen a major technical problem in two 220 KV power grids following which power supply was badly affected on Sunday and Monday. He said electric jumpers had got burnt at these two power grids. However, the fault had been rectified, he said, adding the situation of the power supply was okay today (Tuesday). On being pointed out that there were still complaints of frequent unscheudled power cuts in several areas of the city, he told that these complaints were of “localised” nature which too were being redressed. He said however, there was no cmplaint in the existing system now.
On the other hand, Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal secretary Mohinder Aggarwal told that the situation of the power supply was worse. He said the previous state government had been claiming that there Punjab was a power surplus state and what happened to these claims immediately after taking over by the Congress-led government in Punjab. Should it mean that the previous state government was making false claims of making Punjab a power surplus state. If there was surplus power in Punjab then why people the state were facing acute power cuts under regime of Capt Amarinder Singh government. Even the present state government had rolled back decision of the predecessor state government to provide power to the industrial sector.
Aggarwal said Punjab State Regulatory Commission had withdrawan the privilege given to the industry from 1st June-2017. According to regulatory Commission they have withdraw the Re.1 less tariff given to the industry during night between 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. He added the regulatory commission had also imposed Rs.2 extra tariff for the industry which run from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.