The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Frequent power cuts a nightmare for Ambattur residents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Frequent power cuts a nightmare for Ambattur residents

K. Lakshmi

Irregularities in ration shops another issue that exercises them

CHENNAI: Residents of several parts of Ambattur often spend their evenings in the dark. The reason: power cuts almost every day. This has been going for two months now.

R. Shyamala, a resident of Ram Nagar, said school students were the worst affected as they had little option than to study with the help of the dim-light of candles. "I have to hastily finish cooking and household works by 5 p.m. as electricity invariably fails for five hours during evenings."

In areas, such as Bhanu Nagar Western Extension and Indra Nagar, residents have to put up with the persistent low voltage current. Even streetlights did not function.

G. Natarajan, president of the Government Taxes and Billspayers' Association, said several areas, including Vijayalakshmipuram, Venkateswara Nagar, Chandrasekarapuram and Secretariat Colony, were affected. Though residents have represented their plight to the authorities concerned, the problem continues.

More transformers

During a meeting conducted recently by the Government Taxes and Billspayers' Association last week, residents said that the reason quoted by the electricity board officials was that they received only 26 kV electricity instead of the required 33 kV from Sriperumbudur from where Ambattur gets its main supply. Residents demanded more transformers to avoid power cuts.

Two lakh card-holders

Irregularities in the ration shops were another problem. There are about 120 ration shops in Ambattur with about 2 lakh ration cardholders.

Several residents complained that they were supplied articles that either weighed less or were sub-standard.

Residents who attended the eighth anniversary meeting of the associationlast week alleged that the employees often came up with rude replies to the enquiries of the consumers.

A resident said that women were most affected as they were compelled to purchase other products sold in the ration shops along with the regular commodities.

Responding to the complaints, K. Rajaraman, Additional Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department, said that efforts were being made to provide name batches to the shop staff to facilitate consumers in identifying the persons.

There was no compulsion to purchase articles other than rationed items, he said. Mr. Rajaraman also said that he could be contacted in person or over phone at 2858 3139 or 2859 2255 for complaints regarding civil supplies.

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