Frustrated, angry and helpless about being forced to go without electricity for as long as 60 hours and counting on Tuesday , hundreds of residents of Baner and Balewadi not only demanded immediate restoration of power, but also sought monetary compensation for their suffering as per the standard of performance (SOP) fixed by Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.
While power was finally restored to nearly all the societies on Tuesday by 6.30pm, some like Ashtagandha, among the worst-affected were still struggling without electricity .
The distribution company is liable to pay Rs 50 per hour to every consumer if it is unable to restore power after three hours in case of a fuse off, six hours in case of a cable problem and 18 hours if the transformer has had a breakdown.
Angry consumers approached chief engineer of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited’s Pune zone R D Munde on Tuesday morning who assured them of an inquiry .
The group of 30-odd residents, accompanied by consumer rights activist Vivek Velankar, questioned the quality of work being done by the distribution company .
More than 30 residential societies in and around Baner and Balewadi have been without power since the early hours of Sunday . Registering complaints on the toll-free call centre numbers and personally calling and visiting local offices of the distribution company did not help as the exact cause of the problem could not even be identified till Tuesday morning in many of the affected areas.
Most societies had been surviving on diesel-powered generators, which at best power a light and a fan in most homes. Other electrical appliances, including refrigera tors, have been non-functional since the outage, causing severe inconvenience related to food and medicines, especially for young children and the elderly .
In an hour-long meeting, Swapna Narayanan, co-convener of Baner Balewadi Residents’ Association, submitted a memorandum of their complaints to Munde.
The strongly worded letter said, “The maximum time for restoration of power in case of transformer failure or cable faults has not only exceeded the permissible time, but there is no response from your of ficers regarding when it will be restored. The power outages have crossed 55 hours and counting. It has also caused voltage fluctuation issues because of which appliances have been damaged, motor pumps and lifts have stopped working and has caused inconvenience to the residents. Worse, there has been no response either by your call centre or your officials who handle complaints, leaving consumers with no clarity on the situation.“
Velankar urged Munde to fix the responsibility for the large-scale failure that had left the area no better than a `remote village’.
“We request you to immediately restore power to these societies and conduct an inquiry into why MSEDCL infrastructure failed so miserably .The affected residents must also be compensated (as per SOP). The entire amount of compensation to be paid should be recovered from employees and officers responsible for this disaster,“ Velankar added. Velankar said Baner-Bale wadi area is the first in the country to become `smart’ and this is the unfortunate scenario of MSEDCL’s preparation for it.
Every Thursday , MSEDCL shuts off power for hours together and yet with just two days of rain our infrastructure collapses. This raises questions on the quality of maintenance undertaken, he added.
“Issues like moisture getting into the transformer units or improper laying of cables have to be dealt with by MSEDCL well in advance before the monsoon. Transferring the burden of poor workmanship on the consumers is not acceptable. This has happened because of improper planning, execution and maintenance of infrastructure by MSEDCL,“ he said.
Munde visited the affected areas on Tuesday , but remained non-committal about the compensation.
MSEDCL repairs 15 transformers to restore supply
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Pune: Power supply to societies in Baner, Balewadi and Kharadi was restored by Tuesday evening after Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd completed the repairs of 15 transformers that service these areas.
A statement from the distribution company said these transformers broke down because water accumulated on the roads had seeped into the feeder pillars or ring main units.In several affected societies water had collected at the spot from where the underground cables feeds electricity to the transformers. The cables caught moisture resulting in power failure.
An official said repairing underground cables is a time consuming. “It takes time to locate the fault site with the help of a cable tracking van. The site has to be dug up and cables separated. If the cable has caught moisture, we use blowers to dry them and do the patchwork. Road digging has disturbed several underground cables which develop fault in the rain,“ he said.
A new toll number 1912 has been set up by the Union power ministry for consumers to register their complaints which will be forwarded to the power utility.
Source : TOI
