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Angry mob ransacks Southco fuse call office

— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Burning issue: Fire engines extinguishing the fire that engulfed a transformer at Ganesh Nagar in Berhampur on Thursday night.

BERHAMPUR: Angry mob ransacked a fuse call office of the power distribution company Southco at Khaspa street area of the city and burnt down its furniture on Thursday night.

Fire brigade had to be rushed to the area to stop the arson. It was the outburst of anger of the people of the area after a large transformer at Ganesh Nagar area of the city broke down. The transformer started to burn like a bonfire. Despite several calls the technicians of the Southco did not reach the area in time. A large portion of the old city remained in dark for a several hours. It agitated the inhabitants of the affected area, who reached the fuse call office to ransack and burn down its belongings. The mob alleged that undeclared power cuts had become common in the city due to lack of maintenance by the Southco.

Power problems have also led to similar law and order situations in the city in the past. On May 23 a fuse call office at City High School road was ransacked by the angry mob from Prem Nagar area who had suffered undeclared power cut from evening to 11 p.m. On June 2, people blocked the road at AIR station in the city for several hours after a power cut of around six hours due to a malfunctioning transformer which had not been replaced by the Southco despite several complaints in the past.

It may be noted that recently the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) also remarked that electricity supply in the Berhampur city may collapse any day due to its dismal maintenance. The OERC had felt that interruption of power supply was quite high in Berhampur. A probe team of the OERC had found that 87 per cent of the power interruptions in the city were due to breakdowns which occurred due to lack of periodic preventive maintenance, bad workmanship and may be due to use of substandard material in the system.

It may be noted that since the 1999 super cyclone the power supply network in the city remains in makeshift State. It is alleged that the power supply system remained in the same state what it was after its restoration in a makeshift manner by the Andhra technicians in 1999 after the super cyclone.

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