Power cuts, maintenance works make life of Ludhiana residents miserable

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, May 5

Even as the mercury is soaring with each passing day and heat wave set in before the April end, frequent and prolonged power cuts, coupled with shutdowns for maintenance all across the city, have made life of residents miserable.

To make the matters worse, despite tall claims to the contrary, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has not been able to set its house in order when it comes to providing customer service.

Residents in most city localities complained that due to frequent disruption in power supply during the day, they were made to sweat it out in extremely hot weather and it was worse if the supply failed during night.

As if to add to the misery of the suffering people, the PSPCL announced power shutdown for anything like two to 10 hours citing maintenance and upgradation while showing least concern for consumers, who had to go without electricity during the peak summer season, said a Haibowal resident.

If frequent disruption and maintenance shutdowns have made things rather difficult for city residents, the fault booking and rectification system put in place by the PSPCL in the name of customer care has also left much to be desired.

Common complaint of harassed residents was that if it was tough to get a fault booked at customer care (Toll Free Number 1912), it was all the more irritating when in most cases, consumers received a message of ‘complaint resolved’ even as the fault in power supply was yet to be rectified.

It was on last Saturday (April 22) when a resident of Rajguru Nagar had harrowing time after a booking a complaint of low voltage, which had damaged some household appliances. “Last night was the worst when even a fan or a tube light did not work properly. I booked a complaint via the app at 9.46 pm. Later, I received a message that complaint was resolved whereas nothing had been done to rectify the fault. I booked another complaint at 10.18 pm and finally the fault was rectified at 12.30 am,” said the consumer.

Suffering residents wonder, “How the PSPCL works? Why maintenance works are not completed during winter when electricity is not needed during the day time at least by domestic consumers?” They further say, “Why shutdowns for maintenance works continue till peak summer, which is nothing less than punishment for them.”

Senior PSPCL officials, however, claimed that maintenance works were almost near completion and qualitative improvement in power supply would be visible during next couple of days.

They also pointed out that in case of delay in rectification of fault or any other deficiency in service, affected consumers could always call officials at subdivisions concerned.

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