India is witnessing record temperatures this summer and long power cuts across states are making matters worse. Protest have erupted in several cities against interruptions in electricity supply.
In Punjab’s Hoshiarpur city, farmers blocked roads on Wednesday in protest against the power supply situation, news agency PTI reported. People in the state are struggling with power cuts lasting up to five hours per day.
There is some sliver of hope as a unit of the thermal plant in Rupnagar, which was shut for a month for maintenance, resumed operations on Thursday, The Tribune newspaper reported.
In Jammu and Kashmir also, residents reeling under power cuts staged demonstrations. They say officials are unbothered about their grievances.
“This is first time we are witnessing such a scenario in Kashmir,” Tariq Mughloo, the vice-president of Kashmir Economic Alliance, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. “They (the government) say that the situation is due to shortage of coal and less supply. Why don’t they operate gas turbines? Power cuts have impacted the businessmen and industrial unit holders. This crisis has now entered in its third week.”
Residents in other cities took to Twitter to express frustration over long power cuts.
"We are facing power cuts daily for 5-6 hrs in Palam Vihar Gurugram," said a user named Hemant Juyal. "At times more than that. Its really irritating. Whom to complain, no one is there to listen."
We are facing power cuts daily for 5-6hrs in Palam Vihar Gurugran. at times more than that it's really irritating. Whom to compain no one is there to listen. @cmohry@rakeshdaultabad@BJP4India#poweroutage#PowerCut#HaryanaPolitics— Hemant Juyal (@juyal_hemant) April 29, 2022
A resident of Rajasthan said he had no electricity from 6 am to 9 am every day. "Definitely wakes you up early no matter how late you go to bed."
Here are more tweets on power cuts:
Power cuts in Uttar Pradesh Villages pic.twitter.com/tWyEWKBP1Q— Shio Kumar Socialist : 2024 (@ShioKumar4) April 28, 2022
— akhilsharma21 (@akhilsharma21r1) April 28, 2022
1500MW shortfall of power in Haryana. Gurugram suffering long sweaty hours of power outage. A year after @cmohry claim of making Gurgaon an inverter free city, there are power cuts of 6-8 hours per day. pic.twitter.com/ALDI1wVyUj— Dr sarika verma (@Drsarika005) April 29, 2022
(With inputs from PTI)
