Ludhiana residents groan under acute power cuts, inadequate water supply

Ludhiana residents continue to suffer due to regular power cuts and shortage of water supply, making a mockery of tall claims of the Punjab government on eight-hour power supply daily.

Residents in different localities in the city said intermittent power cuts everyday ranged from two to as much as six hours.

Dinesh, a Model Town resident, said, "It is very difficult to manage in the absence of power. We are feeling helpless in sultry weather conditions and are facing water supply problem as well."

"In the absence of power, water filters also fail to function as also tube wells. The power cuts should at least not be imposed during morning and evening hours when water is supplied and when people have to get ready for office or school."

Talwinder Singh of Jawaddi said, "Power went off at 8am and was resumed at 1pm on Saturday. It is unjustified. On one hand, the government has increased power rates and on the other it has failed to provide power and thus made people suffer. Children too cannot concentrate on studies in such conditions."

A resident of Agar Nagar said a power cut in his area was imposed at 2.30am, which continued till 3:45am before there was again an outage for half an hour. Power cut that started at 9am continued till 1pm on Saturday.

She rued that food stored in the fridge also got spoiled as a result of power cuts.
There were reports of unscheduled power cuts from Dugri area, Pakhowal road, Haibowal, Giaspura, Sewak pura, Flower enclave, Civil lines, Gill Road, Ferozepur road, Model Town, Basti Jodhewal and other areas of the city.

There were also reports of long power cuts from areas outside city such as Doraha and the nearby areas and also from Daad, Kheri, Jassowal, Jodhan and Kilaraipur villages.

Farmers too were getting power supply to fields for only four to five hours even after apprising the authorities about their problems.

Baljinder Singh Pola and Manjit Singh, farmers from Ghulal village in Ludhiana district, said, "We are running water pumps on generators in the absence of power, as we are getting supply for only 4-5 hours. It is expensive but we can't help it."

When contacted, chief engineer KL Sharma maintained that supply was affected due to increase in demand for electricity. He said that the situation would normalise after more rains.