“The eyes of the whole world are on Bengaluru. Hence, it is our responsibility to provide good quality electricity to the citizens here,” Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar recently said at an event.
But, over the last weekend, citizens in many parts of Bengaluru experienced long hours of power interruptions after one spell of rain.
As the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) continues to maintain that its interruptions are mostly scheduled, citizens argue that it is not the case.
“We did not have power for almost six hours between Saturday and Sunday after it rained. We lodged multiple complaints with Bescom on their helpline as well as social media. But restoration of power took many hours anyway,” said Vani K., a resident of BTM Layout.
According to the data provided by the power utility, 1,854 unscheduled interruptions occurred in its jurisdiction in the month of September.
“Unscheduled interruptions usually occur due to weather-related events. When it rains or there are gusty winds, infrastructure gets damaged, or the connection trips. Hence, the supply gets affected,” said an official from Bescom.
However, citizens question why this happens every time it rains.
“On Saturday night, as soon as the rain intensified, I heard an explosion-like sound from the transformer near my house. Within a few minutes, that sound was repeated. We did not have power the whole night after that,” said Shankuntala D., a resident of Marutinagar. “This is not the first time that we have witnessed something like this in our locality. One of their apparatuses had also caught fire once when it rained.”
Experts say that poor maintenance of infrastructure has remained a problem for years now with little improvement.
“They blame monsoon, but monsoon is not a new phenomenon. They should start maintenance before monsoon and ensure that these damages do not occur. As a government company, they cannot be giving excuses,” said M. G. Prabhakar, former member of the advisory committee, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC). “As consumers, we pay fixed charges for 24 hours of power supply. It is their responsibility to provide us quality, continuity and reliability.”
Published - October 01, 2024 04:50 pm IST
