Srinagar, Mar 5: The residents of five colonies in Batmaloo –Firdousabad, New Colony, Ziarat Batmaloo, Banpora and Diarwani have accused the Power Development Department of resorting to discrimination in power curtailment to the area as compared to other non-metered areas in the City.
 The residents who have been protesting the “pesky” curtailment said while a schedule was adhered to in supplying electricity elsewhere, these colonies were being “victimized”.
 “While other areas face evening curtailment of four hours from 6 to 10 on turn basis, we bear the long cut of 6 hours from 5:30 to 11:30 almost everyday,” the locals said.
 They said the affected areas weren’t getting more than nine hours of power supply in 24 hours.
 “We are poor people and don’t have access to gensets and other facilities and so this pesky power supply has made our lives miserable,” said a delegation from the area.
 They said the worst affected was the student community.
 “May be those at the helm of affairs don’t want our children to pursue education,” the locals alleged.
 They accused the PDD of taking them for a ride.
 When contacted a senior PDD official had his own take on the issue.
 He said the area was overloading the power transmission system.
 “Earlier they were fed from 10 MVA, now it has been increased to 36 MVA and still the overload persists which results in cuts,” he said.
 He, however, said the matter to improve the supplies would be looked into.
 Meanwhile, the locals have appealed the local MLA Irfan Shah to look into the matter.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 5 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 5 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 6 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST