CHANDIGARH: Summers are not yet here, but Punjab is facing an unprecedented power crisis. Despite an average daily bill of Rs 15 crore for power purchase from outside, consumers are facing long, uncomfortable power cuts, which are turning daily schedules topsy-turvy, besides causing huge financial losses.
Farmers, meanwhile, sit idle during the day and wait for the night when power supply reaches their doorsteps with fits and starts.
In village Ramgarh, around 10 kilometre from Phagwara, serpentine queues of women and children start forming from morning and stay till evening at the lone hand pump in the village since power cuts start from midnight and last till late afternoon hours on the next day and put a hold on the regular water supply.
The old hand pumps have gone dry and submersible pumps or tubewells are ‘powerless’, says Inderjit Kaur, a village resident.
“Cattle remain hungry as most of the households have power-run fodder-cutting machines,” she said, adding that power cuts usually last for 8 to 10 hours a day. In Mehalkalan village, farmer Manjit Singh said they get power only for up to four hours daily.
The scenario in urban areas is dismal where industry is forced to shut down for two days every week due to weekly offs imposed by PSEB. There is also a regular off for the labour force, thus the production shuts down for three days effectively.
Households in both urban and rural areas suffer while all work comes to a standstill as mixers, refrigerators, washing machines and even TV turn mere fixtures and diesel-run generators create air and noise pollution for hours on end.
“Our fuel bill has taken a huge jump this year,” says Harjeet Kaur, a housewife in Khanna town.
The student community is nursing its own grouse. “The power goes off just when we start getting ready for school to take our exams. Preparation for exams can be done only during the day because there is no power supply at night,” says Ramandeep Singh, a student of Khalsa College Amritsar.
“Nobody talks of our woes,” Seetu, a grill manufacturer in Kartarpur, said, adding that he was not able to honour commitments made to customers as his work was mainly based on power. With around six hours cut in the day, the output has come down drastically for self-employed, small-time entrepreneurs. “I had to reduce my workforce from six to two men. We can’t even afford a generator,” he rued.
Northern grid failure on two subsequent days, affecting Ropar, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr districts is an indication of the situation worsening in the coming days.
“If this continues, how would we manage paddy irrigation?” rued Tarlochan Singh, a resident of Ablu village in Bathinda. Even a power cut-free zone like Bathinda has suffered 10 hour-long power cuts in the first week of March itself, bringing life to a standstill.
Reports coming from Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Ferozepur, Amritsar, Bathinda, Pathankot and Sangrur revealed that PSEB was imposing both scheduled and unscheduled power cuts ranging from 8 to 11 hours in all sectors, which would continue in March.
Chief engineer (north zone) of PSEB, HS Thukral said, “The situation is expected to improve in summer with increase in flow of water to the hydel projects.” Stopping power theft, which forces unscheduled cuts, is however a sore point with PSEB.
Source: The Times of India News Service