Scheduled power cuts was such a fancy term that was introduced a couple of decades back to let people know there would be pre-informed load shedding. As a taxpayer, it always feels good to stay informed. So the Power Development Department does its duty of informing its citizens of power cuts in almost every area of every district. The load shedding as a principle is more in areas that are not metered as compared to areas that are metered – these jargons do overlap in the practicality of things as sometimes the vice versa also happens. Many residents living on the periphery of various districts are complaining of massive unscheduled power cuts under the cover of scheduled power cuts.
The mechanism is simple. Stop the electricity supply one hour ahead of schedule and restore the supply after one hour of delay. The residents feel the schedule with a milder deviation is being adhered to. However, the deviation slowly and steadily gets bigger and bigger and the people as well as the PDD forget what the primal mean hours of load shedding were. It also depends on what area you live in, an area which is close to district and regional headquarters see lesser deviation from the schedule. However, areas farther from the district and regional headquarters get massive deviations from the scheduled power cuts. Also, it depends on who lives in the neighborhood – a gentrified neighborhood with who’s who of society and power echelons would be untouched by the unscheduled power cuts whereas areas, where the blue-collared undisguised commoners live, would see the deviation more and more.
One can understand that the rivers have dried up impacting their potential to generate hydroelectricity. However, the administration knew of this for a long time. Why are the alternative modes of power generation not being resorted to now, and if not now then when? Is the government comfortable with a 15 to 20-hour load shedding starting mid-December to late January? One the one hand the government is increasing taxes on almost everything under the sun and at the same time the citizens of perhaps one of the coldest places on earth have to endure the harsh winters without an adequate supply of electricity.
The government cannot remain a mute spectator here and needs to step in and ensure citizens getan uninterrupted power supply. This is a fundamental right of citizens, or of every taxpayer.
Unscheduled power cuts
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