For the past couple of months, thousands of residents of Pensioners Lane in Old Washermenpet have been facing sleepless nights due to the erratic power supply in the locality. Over 200 fed-up residents gathered near the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) office near the Stanley Government General Hospital to protest against inaction on the part of authorities.
There are over 1,000 houses in the Pensioners Lane. “For the past few months, we have been facing erratic power supply every day apart from the regular load shedding,” said Abdul Haleem, a resident.
They claim school children are the most affected. “Even when they go for tuitions they are not able to study due to the power cuts. They are not even able to sleep at night and end up dozing off at school. We are worried for their performance in exams,” said A.L. Iqbal Ahmed, a real estate businessman living in the locality.
Housewives also find it difficult to send the children to school on time. “Most of the time, there is no water as it is impossible to operate the pump. Electrical cooking equipment is also useless. We buy breakfast from hotels and give it to children. We can never predict when there will be a power cut,” said Husnara, a house wife living in the locality.
Many residents, who are observing the Ramzan fast, say that they are not able to read the Quran due to the outages. “We are not able to cook food and distribute it to the poor. Most of the time, when we call the TANGEDCO office, they do not respond,” said Mr. Abdul Haleem.
On Wednesday, residents alleged that officials were keen on chasing them away rather than solving the problem. “They called the police to keep us at bay,” said a resident.
A TANGEDCO official denied that there were issues in the power supply. “There was some problem on Tuesday night alone as a cable got punctured due to the ongoing bridge construction work in Mint. But we restored supply by 11 p.m,” said the official.
