Outages leave residents in parts of Mohali shivering

Gaurav Kanthwal

Mohali, January 6

Some parts of Mohali district, including areas of Aerocity, Sector 108 and 115, Kharar, and several villages of Lalru, have been experiencing regular power outages over the past few days in the dead of winter.

A 20-min cut was imposed in parts of Sector 30 around noon in UT on Friday.

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Residents have accused Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) of leaving them in the cold during early morning and evening hours.

Sukhnaaz Singh, a Sector 115 resident, says: “Power cuts ranging from two to four hours are a daily affair in our locality. Nobody knows why these cuts are being imposed during extreme cold. PSPCL officials have failed to give a clear answer.”

Due to upkeep, faults

There was a scheduled power cut in TDI City, Sector 110, due to pruning of trees. Also, transformer was being repaired in Sector 70. Taranjit Singh, XEN

Similarly, Diljot Singh, a Sunny Enclave resident, says the Paradise feeder under the City Kharar division has been under repair for some time. Elderly women and children have to face problem as geysers, room heaters, blowers, etc. have been rendered useless without power. Gurjusjit Singh, a resident of Aerocity H Block, says: “We are facing five to six hours of power outages daily. The authorities have cited work on repair of a transformer in C Block for this. While our row of houses is without power, there is no such problem in the commercial row on the other side of the road in the front.”

Manpreet Singh, owner of a Sector 70 photo studio owner, says: “There was no power from 9 am to 2 pm in Mataur and I could not do work for half of the day.” Kharar resident Kuljeet Singh, who lives near the Randhawa Road, says there has been no power since early morning.

Residents of Lalru and Handesra have also been having a tough time during the morning and evening hours for the past few days. The affected areas include Jola Khurd, Lalru and Alamgir that get supply from the 66 kV sub-station at Handesra. Residents complain of power cuts from 6 am to 8.30 am and 5 pm to 8 pm on a daily basis.

Mohali Executive Engineer Taranjit Singh, however, says: “There was a scheduled power cut in TDI City, Sector 110, due to pruning of trees. A transformer was being repaired in Sector 70 for which there was a brief power cut. Otherwise, there was no issue in Mohali.”

Double whammy

Several PSPCL customers and others have complained of receiving fake messages in their phones threatening to snap power supply over dues. On clicking a link to make payments, victims lose money to cyber criminals. Asking people to be wary of such fraudulent messages, a police official said suspects were using a fake homepage of the electricity department to trap unsuspecting users fraudulently withdrawing money from their bank accounts.