Karnataka - Bijapur   

Bijapur residents lay siege to HESCOM office

BIJAPUR: Residents of different localities in Bijapur laid siege to the Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) divisional office here on Wednesday to protest against erratic power supply.

The protesters, who gathered under the banner of Bijapur Yuva Horata Vedike, closed the main gate of the office and shouted slogans against the HESCOM for what they termed deteriorated power supply.

They gheraoed superintending engineer N.S. Hosmani and executive engineer Vithal Teli, who came there to receive their petition.

Ramesh Bidnur and Vyasray Diwanji, office-bearers of the vedike, asked why the HESCOM had been resorting to unscheduled power shutdown.

There had been power shutdown every day in the last three months, they said. If power shutdown was essential, the department should make the schedules public in advance so that consumers could plan their work accordingly, they said.

Mr. Hosmani said usually the department would not resort to unscheduled power shutdown, but it had to do so sometimes on the direction of the dispatch centre in Bangalore. However, he said that there was frequent power disruption last week as the 110 KV supply line from the main receiving station in Basavanaabgewadi was often cut at different stretches owing to overload.

The official said he would ensure that the staff concerned would be responsive to public grievances. Also, the department would try to give publicity about power shutdowns in advance in future, he said.

Not satisfied with his response, the protesters resorted to “rasta roko” on Bagalkot Road, disrupting the vehicular traffic for over an hour.

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