Hours after chief secretary Sudhansh Pant instructed for uninterrupted power supply and made collectors and Discom officials accountable, posh colony of Jaipur – Malviya Nagar – suffered heavy power fluctuations in the midnight causing severe inconvenience to consumers.
In the 15 sector of the colony, consumers experienced severe voltage fluctuations resulting in damaging of electrical appliances including air conditioners and refrigerators.
“Who will pay for my damages. For last two hours power supply has been erratic. There has been voltage fluctuations resulting in damage of my fridge and air conditioner. Who will pay for this,” asked Prabhjot Kaur, a resident of sector 15, Malviyanagar, Jaipur.
All the claims and assurances of chief sect and discom officials fell flat. The erratic power supply is just adding to salt to injury in a time when the temperature is soaring beyond 45 degrees.
This is the condition of state capital. People can easily wonder what may be happening in the remote areas and other cities of the state.
“The helpline number of discom is not working. I had been trying for two hours. But I was able to get through. We are among the top paying consumers in the country. Even then we are getting sloppy services. Had it been a private company, you can easily imagine what could have happened?” asks Tarun Chouhan another resident of sector 15, Malviya Nagar, Jaipur.
The travails of chief secretary Sudhansh Pant is going to be in vain as the system is unlikely to improve.
When the temperature is soaring high and even temperature at night is causing discomfort, consumers of Jaipur discom are suffering badly despite shelling out one of the highest power tariff.
“The chief secretary should not have intervened in the working of discoms. Now even after his intervention if condition of discom continues to go from bad to worse, then chief secretary will be held responsible,” said Rajesh Kalra, a retired government official.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.