NEW DELHI, May 31: Why are there local electric faults all over Delhi? Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) chairman Navin Chawla is hard pressed for an answer. While residents continue to be powerless, this basic question was raised at a meeting attended by senior DVB members at Shakti Sadan today, driving home the fact that the people in power seem clueless about the reasons behind the problems faced by the general population.While scores of angry citizens stormed DVB complaint centres, gheraoed municipal councillors, clashed with police and even marched to Parliament to protest against the pathetic state of affairs, DVB's public relations officer proudly said that there was only one trip in the transformers today, compared to 37 a few days ago.
Frantic phone calls from frustrated Delhiites tell of problems ranging from the shortage of power and under-frequency trippings to burning out of cables and transformers.
``Nothing seems to working according to the elaborate schedule DVB came up with. We have not had any electricity for four hours now and the complaint number is perpetually engaged,'' fumes V.K. Aggarwal, a resident of Regarpura. And this after Chawla had assured residents that there would be only hour-long load shedding by rotation due to an estimated gap of 200 MW in the 2,400 MW power demand of the city. This gap, DVB admits, has already been met by contributions from the northern grid. But power cuts continue for 5 to 6 hours in some areas.
``There is no way of knowing whether the load shedding has been uniformly introduced in all localities and whether the schedule is being adhered to. Accountability is missing,'' says S.Kumar, president of Society for Civic Rights.
The people's misery finally seems to have struck a chord in the hearts of DVB officials. At the meeting today, Chawla issued some directives ``to be implemented immediately'', all in an effort to salvage the situation.
Chawla's charter:
All districts will now have three break-down vans instead of two. Each DVB circle will have two transformers of different capacities and one or two mobile transformers. These are to ensure that there is immediate redressal to any complaint.
All complaint centres will be provided with one torch or emergency light so that the officials can function even when there is no power at the centres.
Technical members have been told to work out a plan for feeder load segregation so that the load on a single line is not too much.All officials have been told to take precautions for the rainy season also.However, residents are not confident that the measures will be implemented. The common grudge is that ``the telephone lines are perpetually engaged or the staff are very rude and uncooperative''.Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
