Power cuts compound rain woes in Tarn Taran

Hours-long and frequent power cuts in Tarn Taran town have become a routine for the city residents ever since the rainy season started.

Stalinjit Singh Sandhu, a social worker, said on Thursday that most localities including Bath Avenue, Mohindra Avenue, Green Avenue and a number of other colonies covering half the population of the town, have been suffering from unannounced power cuts. Many a time, the power cuts often occur at

midnight and continue for hours and till late in the morning because of which the employees fail to get water supply and often fail to attend their duties on time. Stalinjit Singh Sandhu said that at midnight, a vehicle hit an electricity pole near the SDM office which affected the Sarhali road, Sachkhand road, Mohalla Bhag Shah and other areas for hours. He said that they were not being given advance information about power cuts and had to bear the brunt of power interruptions in the scorching summer heat.

Sukhdeep Singh, a retired Powercom official who worked in the Tarn Taran town for about 30 years, said that defective equipment besides obsolete breakers and poor quality of insulators were the main cause of disruption in power supply. He added that poor quality of cable-end boxes and lack of maintenance of the 11KV lines are among the technical reasons for the faults.

Narinder Singh, SDO City, Tarn Taran, said the flash over that occurred at 132 KV power station in Tarn Taran days back is one the major reasons for the tripping of feeders. He said he has just discussed the matter with his senior officials today and expressed the hope that the problem would be resolved soon. He said the shortage of technical staff was a major hindrance in rectifying the faults.

Amritsar