Ujjain : The electricity distribution company Essel, a conglomerate company has been in the muddy waters since it joined the city. With every other day protest by residents or political groups the ruling party has been forced to think about handing over the power to the Essel in the holy city. The heat has increased to extent that now there are talks calling an Ujjain Bandh, protesting the apathy of DISCOM. One small organization Rashtriya Nota Prashanshak Sangathan has even called for a half day Ujjain Bandh on June 17, demanding reduction in bills of poor. The flares of heat against the company have risen to such standards that an alleged social welfare organization backed by a political party, was seen mouthing against the DISCOM in Tata Magic in the city. The Tata Magic bearing loudspeaker raising comments against the company was spotted in the Tower Chowk on Tuesday.
While some are terming the oppose as political sabotage and tug of war between ruling and opposition parties, the residents on ground reality are not much happy with the services of the DISCOM and they are not wrong. Regular power cuts have become order of the day, forcing them to protest against the company. The agitators have threatened to intensify the agitation if DISCOM officials do not take effective steps to provide disruption-free electricity to consumers.
The agitating activists gathered at a sub-station at Daulatganj and shouted slogans against the DISCOM. They said it had become extremely difficult for them to cope up with the hot and humid weather due to erratic power cuts in city and adjoining localities.Ruling BharatiyaJanata Party is trying to snatch the issue from the hands of Congress, which in other ways is harming the reputation of the front line commandos of the BJP, who had taken the decision.
On Tuesday the BharatiyaJanata Party YuvaMorcha functionaries staged a protest against frequent power cuts in the Daulatganj area. Block president DhirendrasinghPanwar said the power has been gone for around 5 hours now and no one is caring, the zone office is avoiding the issue in name of maintenance shutdown. Later the company PRO SaurabhShastri reached the area and heard to their pleas and gave instructions for restoring the power in the area. The company staff on Tuesday also faced stark opposition from the residents of the TriveniVihar, where the TriveniVihar feeder was closed for two hours more than the given time slot.
A cautious citizen on Tuesday said that the whole decision was botched, suddenly why the government felt to hand over the power supply of the holy city in private hands, and that too just before Simhastha Fair. Every outcome or political profit decision, always the common public is always suffers. The company has also failed to provide the services they had promised on their arrival. The attitude of any employee of the DISCOM is not consumer friendly, and whenever he tried to talk them, they seem threatening, he added.
Another citizen said, he had been trying to contact the DISCOM office for three days now and no one is picking up the phone. When he tried to contact company staff about the problem at the Mahananda-Mahashweta zone office, they avoided him by saying, they will look into it.
Company speaks
Public Relation Office of DISCOM while talking to Free Press said consumer benefit is the first priority of the company. Esselhas been initiating measures to arrest the electricity loss in the city for the last few days. Special Aerial Bunched (AB) Cables are being laid throughout to restrict the power theft through the common practice of fastening hooks. AB cables are used in theft prone areas, or as a replacement of bare conductors in rural areas, forest, hilly terrains etc. These AB cables give highly reliable performance, good protection against line and ground fault and good adaptability. These functional cables are available in standard dimensions and can also be customized as per client’s requirement. In addition to it, the company is slowly replacing old meters by new digital meters, to stop the theft and loss. The company men had successfully laid AB cables around 30 kilometer and replaced around 30,000 electric meters in its first phase of operation conducted in areas like Khedapati Zone, Begumbag, and many other areas of the city, he said.
