Unscheduled power cuts

HYDERABAD: City dwellers continue to be harassed with unscheduled power shutdowns even after the announcement of a schedule by the APCPDCL a few days ago. Power cuts of durations ranging from two to five hours or more are being experienced all over the city, often at odd timings.
“For the past two to three days, power is being removed abruptly at odd hours. We had shutdowns from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and again from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Our school-going children would not find time to finish their homework,” complained Narsing Rao, an Inspector from City Police who stays at Chintal Basti.
Power cuts in the morning are resulting in untold misery due to obstruction in water supply, he said. The water pump which requires three-phase supply would not have full pressure at single phase supply. “The cuts are not limited to two hours. We experience 3-hour cut everyday,” says Chary, a retired lecturer from Dilsukhnagar.

Indifferent attitude
Many areas within the Ranga Reddy district such as Alwal and Saroornagar share the problem. All are miffed with the non-responsive attitude of the authorities.
Calling the local distribution office will not yield any result as the receiver is put aside during power cuts, he said. The 24-hour helpline would be always busy. Authorities, however, refute allegations of unscheduled cuts.
“The housing colonies adjacent to the industrial areas had to suffer due to the four-hour scheduled cut for the industries. Now the problem will be rectified as weekly power holidays have been announced,” said V.V. Swamy, the Public Information Officer of CPDCL.
He further said the prolonged cuts might be due to line clearance obtained by the local officials.