Power cuts in winter irk consumers
No domestic cuts being imposed, claims PSPCL
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 14
Notwithstanding the claims of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) authorities that no power cuts for domestic category consumers are being imposed in any part of the state, the domestic consumers have complained that hour-long power cuts are being imposed by the PSPCL for the past few days.

During the past one week, one to two hours long power cuts have been imposed by the PSPCL in Jalandhar, Bathinda, Patiala and Ludhiana besides some other parts of the state. “Almost a one-hour cut is being imposed in residential colonies of Patiala,” confirmed a Patiala resident, Ripudaman Singh.

Expressing similar views, residents of Jalandhar told TNS that they were witnessing two-hour power cuts. The situation is more or less same in Bathinda and Ludhiana. Interestingly, PSPCL officials claimed that no cuts were being imposed on the domestic consumers in any part of Punjab.

Substantiating his claims, AK Verma, Director, Distribution, PSPCL, said that on January 13, the power consumption in Punjab was recorded to be 905 Million Units (MUs), whereas the availability of power was 1,069 MUs.

The PSPCL officials also said that currently the corporation was banking 164 MUs of power per day, so that the same could be utilised during the peak of the summer season. Verma further said, “As per the head office, the instructions are pretty clear that there will be no cut for the domestic consumers and for the induction furnaces, the power cut will be from 8 am to 8 pm, whereas for the arc and rolling mills, there will be a two-day weekly off.”

However, when questioned that if there is no shortage of power then why the cuts are being imposed, he claimed that there may be some technical snag or some local-level problem in some parts that had forced the authorities to impose power cuts on domestic consumers. But during an interaction with The Tribune, a majority of the domestic power consumers expressed resentment on account of power cuts in Punjab in winters.