By Sahana Iyengar
Over 100 families in Bengaluru’s Sanjay Nagar and its neighbouring areas have been living without electricity since Tuesday, and the residents claim that their complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
The area witnessed a power shutdown on Tuesday evening due to heavy rain and strong winds. Several trees were uprooted in the area – and along with the trees, power lines came down.
However, since then, power has not been restored in many pockets, and citizens are angry at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM).
“Their priority was to clear the main roads first. Ashwath Nagar, Geddalahalli and Sanjay Nagar of RMV 2nd Stage are still affected and taking the brunt. The electric poles and trees chopped are yet to be cleared and are heaped on the footpaths,” a resident of Sanjay Nagar says.
Ramaswamy, another resident in the area, says they have not had running water for two days.
“The residents had to suffer without electricity for two days. Because there is no electricity, there is no running water in our homes either,” he says.
The reason, according to residents, is that the BBMP and BESCOM were not working in tandem.
“When we asked the BESCOM contractor to fix the fallen electric poles and restore power, he told us that the BBMP had to clear the trees before he could fix the poles,” says Pushpa, a resident.
“The clearing of the fallen trees was outsourced to private contractors, according to BESCOM, who apparently delayed the clearing of the trees. The contractor who was sent to clear the trees said his tree trimmer had run out of fuel while cutting the trees and the work was left unfinished!” says Ravi, an indignant resident.
Some residents also allege that the contractor demanded a bribe to do the job and deliberately inconvenienced the residents.When TNM contacted the BBMP, they said that the job would be done soon.
“There were trees fallen down everywhere so there was a delay. It will be cleared by the end of today (Thursday) or tomorrow (Friday) morning,” the BBMP said.
BESCOM, on the other hand, says it will be done one by one as there are 20 broken poles.
“There were about 20 poles broken and it would take manpower and machines to solve the issues for all. There were many lanes affected so there was a delay to finish up one by one."
Since the trees have not been cleared and the fallen electric poles have not been replaced, the power has not been restored yet.