Ahead of polling day, Abohar residents sweat it out during 12-hour outage

Raj Sadosh

Abohar, May 31

While the Lok Sabha election campaign ended on Thursday at 6 pm, about 1.75 lakh urban consumers were deprived of electricity supply by 7 pm. Power supply could be restored completely on Friday by 7 am. Punjab State Power Corporation Limited staff explained there developed a serious fault in the 220 kV power substation on the Abohar- Malout Road. Due to power supply failure, people braving 44°C were also deprived of water for drinking, even private ROs could not bail out the consumers of the crisis.

Hundreds of complaints were made to senior officials by the consumers who were feeling uneasy in having a sleep. The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) received such complaints at 10 pm Thursday. Today, the CMO at 11 am asked the Special Secretary, Power Department, and Superintending Engineer, to look into the matter and take remedial steps.

Even when the PSPCL staff attributed the 12-hour-long breakdown to some serious problem in the 220kV sub station, it provided ammunition to the Opposition parties’ supporters who in small groups carried out a door-to-door programme. They recalled that AAP had guaranteed 24-hour uninterrupted supply but frequent breakdowns almost each day left an impression that it was also a false promise.