Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: From Balasore to Bolangir and Koraput to Kendrapara, unscheduled power cuts have made people’s lives miserable across the State. However, authorities of Gridco, the State-run power trading firm, have ruled out the power outages allegations.

Though the recent shower triggered by formation of a cyclonic circulation has brought the temperature down to some level, people are still grappling with humid conditions in many parts of the State. The unscheduled power cuts have compounded their miseries.

Middle class and lower middle class families in the state are bearing the brunt of frequent power cuts. While children are now relying on kerosene lamps (Dibiri) for studies, women too are having difficult times while cooking and completing daily chores without electricity. However, such plights of people in most of the districts have failed to draw the attention of the State Government.

“There have been unscheduled power cuts in this area for the last two months. Besides, low-voltage has added to our woes,” said Jharana Sahu, a resident of Balasore district.

Questions are now being raised over undeclared power cuts across the State. Whether it is due to water scarcity, poor load taking capacity of existing infrastructure or the authorities concerned are doing it intentionally to show surplus electricity generation in the State, all such questions still remain unaswered.

However, the Gridco authorities' refuted that unscheduled power cuts allegations and claimed that the power outages are mostly occurring due to some accidental disruptions and for its subsequent maintenance and restoration.

Gridco Director Manas Kumar Das said, “The State's electricity requirement was 4200 MW by June 20 and we had 4300 MW in place to meet the demand. In case there are power disruptions due to accident, we snap electricity supply for carrying out maintenance work.”

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