When power cut becomes a norm

I live in NIT Faridabad, and the problems of power cut we face here are nothing new, it’s something that has been going on for years. Although the situation is better today, the problem of power cuts has not been resolved completely by DHBVN, the Haryana electricity management board.

Every time it rains in our area, there is a general expectation that a power cut will follow the rains after 10-15 minutes. And it happens invariably. I remember last week when it rained here for half an hour or so, the power was gone after 15 minutes of rain and didn’t return for five hours.

That’s a common occurrence now. I’ve complained so many times to DHBVN’s helpline number. Every time a person will pick the phone, ask me for the details such as area, ward no., house address and then tell me that I will get another call to inform the status of my complaint. But that call never comes.

It’s so frustrating on holidays, when there’s no power. And after a point you even struggle to charge your phone. When there’s a severely long power cut, we go to the local electricity department, but even there you will not find an official who could tell us when power supply will be restored.

If ever by chance they think of acting upon the situation, they will ask for our help, for example: ‘Arrange a ladder’. That’s frustrating, because we’re taxpaying citizens of the state, and shouldn’t that be the basic responsibility of the state electricity board?

Some people don’t care much about power cuts, because they get to sit outside in the middle of the night and gossip, with children playing around. That’s not how one should cope with the problem, there should be a collective effort made by the locals and complain should be made to the MCF (Municipal Corporation of Faridabad).

I hope the city of Faridabad also gets private players to provide electricity that can make our situation better. At least we will get sufficient services by them, because anyway the government operators are useless. While our area has top-notch broadband, the power cuts make everything non-usable. I hope the situation gets better with time, but, it has already been long since we are hoping for this.

— As told to Shruti Das