Odisha Energy Minister, Pratap Keshari Deb on Thursday said that the use of the term 'power cut' by the media is wrong as these are not deliberate power cuts but mechanical failures which result in power outages.
Deb said, “Power outages faced by people for more than 2-4 hours are due to mechanical failure. Norwester is a major cause for this. In many places, transmission cables are damaged by the uprooted trees. There are other places where transformers get damaged due to overloading. These cause power outages. I do not deny power outages. But that is not a power cut. Using the term 'power cut' by media is wrong.”
Deb was preaching the media about what term to use and what not, the people of Soro in Balasore had a different story to tell altogether. Contrary to the Energy Minister’s claims, the people of Soro alleged power cuts by the Tata Power even when there were no rains or thunderstorms.
Manoj Kumar Panda, A local of Soro said, “There was no rain last night, but still, there was no electricity in our village. The power went out at 10 pm and came back at 5 am. The humidity did not let anybody sleep in our village last night.”
Not only in Soro, but these ‘power cuts’ are pervasive across the district of Balasore even in Mayurbhanj forcing the local consumers to protest at the Executive Engineer’s office.
The situation is more or less the same in Mayurbhanj. As alleged, unannounced power outage for 3-4 hours is a regular occurrence in Udala.
A local of Udala, Baidyanath Singh said, “We are experiencing power cut every evening for one to two hours. Sometimes the power does not get restored for the whole night.”
With the Minister denying to accept power cuts in the State, the people in the know have started to ask whether mechanical failures do not amount to the incompetence of Tata Power in particular and the Energy Department as a whole.
President of the Power Consumers Association, Ramesh Satapathy said, “There are a lot of transmission cables and electricity sub-stations which have not been replaced for a long time. Using sub-standard material and saying power outage is due to mechanical failure is absolutely rubbish. This needs to be probed.”