Half of Chandigarh Reels From 36-Hour Blackout, Admin Blames Electricity Workers Strike
Chandigarh: Almost half of Chandigarh has been without electricity since midnight on Monday, February 21.
On Tuesday, field employees of the local electricity department began their protest against the privatisation of power distribution in the Union Territory (UT).
The Punjab and Haryana high court took suo motu cognisance of the matter on Tuesday itself and during the hearing, the Union-controlled government of Punjab and Haryana's joint capital alleged 'sabotage' on the part of the protesting employees.
Explaining the matter, an official alleged that the protesting electricity department employees cut key distribution lines on Monday night before starting the protest.
However, Gopal Joshi, general secretary of the UT's electricity department employees' association, denied the charge and in turn blamed the outage on the failure of the UT to handle the operation of the electricity department after the majority of its field employees went off work.
Aerial view of Chandigarh. Clicked by my colleague @AhujaBalish #PowerlessChandigarh #72HoursPowermenStrike #Chandigarh @timesofindia pic.twitter.com/3RcCBMuIA7
— Rajinder S Nagarkoti रजिन्दर सिंह नगरकोटी (@nagarkoti) February 22, 2022
To tide over the imminent crisis in the city, the Chandigarh administration approached the governments of Punjab and Haryana asking for them to lend some of their employees. However, according to the latest information on the matter, Punjab has expressed its inability to depute its staff. Haryana's response is still awaited.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the high court summoned Chandigarh’s Chief Engineer to apprise the court about the measures being taken to alleviate the crisis.
Dharam Pal, the advisor to the UT administrator, told The Wire that all possible steps are being taken to tide over the situation, which include invoking the East Punjab Essential Services Act, 1968.
Sources said that certain provisions of the Act empower the UT administration to take punitive action against the striking employees. The administration is planning to invoke these against the 1,000-plus protestors on Wednesday if they do not return to their jobs.
The administration decided that it would invoke the Act after talks with the protesting employees on Tuesday evening failed, given that the administration was in no mood to defer its privatisation move. It has already selected Kolkata-based Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited to handle the UT's power supply; a move which employees say will render hundreds of contractual employees jobless and even impact the regular staff of the department.
Also read: Diving Into the Privatisation Push in India's Power Sector
Cascading effect
While Pal told The Wire that around 40% of Chandigarh has been without power for the last 24 hours, insiders within the administration, as well as reports from the ground suggest that over half of the city's 10 lakh residents currently do not have electricity.
What's more, this power outage has a cascading effect, touching all spheres of life. Virtual hearings in the high court, as well as in district courts, could not take place; students were unable to take online examinations; work in government and private offices alike suffered disruptions; traffic signals which were rendered non-functional had to be physically manned; and even the city's COVID vaccination programmes took a hit as government dispensaries had to shift their vaccine stock in order to keep it within the temperature parameters.
Failure of Chandigarh Administration. Total blackout in the as electricity dept being privatised and around 1100 employees gone on strike for 72 hours. Is this the Smart city we are boasting about.@KirronKherBJP @PMOIndia #Chandigarh #electricity pic.twitter.com/2wWbYcLygO
— Neha Sharma (@SalariaNeha) February 22, 2022
Health services, in particularly, were massively hit. Two UT-administration-run hospitals – in Sector 32 and Sector 16 – had to suspended any surgeries scheduled for the next few days. Moreover, videos uploaded to social media revealed the extreme circumstances under which doctors were forced to work.
This is how doctors in dispensaries were doing their work due to power outage in Chandigarh as powermen went on a strike@thetribunechd pic.twitter.com/b5oQm3x0FC
— Naina Mishra (@Nainamishr94) February 22, 2022
Another big hospital, the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, which has its own permanent power lines, issued a statement saying that the situation is serious but it is continuously monitoring it and are in constant touch with UT administration.
Ordinary residents are meanwhile, venting their anger on social media. One Ashish Malhotra tweeted that there was be no power in the city for 19 hours. Tagging the handle of the BJP government in the city, he asked why there is no outage in the sectors where VVIPs live.
Power outage since 19 hours in chandigarh
When the electricity will be restored?
Why there is no outage in couple of sectors where VVIPs live?
Why ordinary man always suffer? @BJP4Chandigarh can we expect a response#electricity #chandigarhadministration— Ashish malhotra (@Ashishm59891581) February 22, 2022
Manraj Grewal, a local journalist, tweeted, “Back to the Dark Ages in the City Beautiful as people scamper for candles. It’s arguably the longest power outage in Chandigarh not caused by a storm or extreme weather (sic).”
Another resident wrote that while they sympathised with the reason for the protest, he called the protestors' apathy towards students taking online exams "despicable".
Although I support the reason for the protest but the apathy of the protesters to understand the ordeal of the power outage for a patient's kin or a student about to appear in an online exam is despicable!! #Chandigarh
— Dr.RBanks (@drrbanka) February 22, 2022
R.K. Garg, president of a senior citizen's club, 'Second Innings', told The Wire that the outage has been a "complete ordeal" for the residents of the "so-called smart city". Senior citizens felt the majority of the impact of the outage as they missed surgeries and other medical commitments.
Ravi Kumar, a resident of Sector 63 told The Wire that in his entire sector has been without power for at least 24 hours, prior to speaking with this reporter. There are 2,500 flats in Kumar's sector and each block has six floors. According to him, the worst affected were the senior citizens living on higher floors since without power, the lifts have stopped working, making it impossible to leave their homes.
Moreover, without power, mobile phones have gone dead in many houses, cutting them off from the outside world. “This is my worst nightmare as a city resident," Kumar said.
Several rights groups have reportedly been tagging both the Prime Minister and Home Minister in their online pleas for help, requesting their intervention in sorting the matter out. “Is someone accountable for this predicament of the common man?” asked Ajay Verma, another Chandigarh resident.
There were, however, a few voices in support of the protesting employees too. One Nitin Vohra, in a Facebook post, urged residents of the city to put up with the "minor inconvenience" since the workers, by opposing the privatisation of power distribution, are "also fighting for the interests of consumers".
Some residents have also expressed their disappointment with actor Kirron Kher, the Member of Parliament from Chandigarh, for her absence even as the city is reeling under the crisis.
Meanwhile, both the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) extended support to the striking employees, even as local BJP leaders called it a 'double standard'. Chandigarh BJP president Arun Sood said that it was the Congress-led Union government that began the process of privatising electricity supply in India while AAP has already privatised the power supply in Delhi. He said BJP was in touch with the local administration to restore the normal power supply in Chandigarh.
This article went live on February twenty-third, two thousand twenty two, at fourteen minutes past twelve at noon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
