Villages reel under power cut

Villages reel under power cut September 24, 2011 By DC Correspondent Ongole Villages reel under power cut People in Prakasam district are reeling under a severe power cut, particularly villages, to the extent of 12 hours. The district needs around 6.6 million units power a day, while supply has been reduced to 5 million units. The district headquarters of Ongole was also subjected to a four hour power cut, from 10 am to 12 pm and 4 pm to 6 pm, while the 1,043 villages in the district face a continuous power cut from 6 am to 6 pm. Seeking a change in power cut timings, people in rural areas lamented that Transco, in the name of emergency load relief, was imposing three to five hours power cut at night as well. Though Transco claims that free power power supply is scheduled from 2 am to 9 am and 9 am to 4 pm, farmers say that power is given only after midnight for a few hours. The 27 mandals in the district have already been declared drought-hit by government, and farmers have to bear the brunt of the power cut in using bore-wells to water crops. Around 25,000 weavers are also hit by the power cut apart from industries such as granite, slate and stone crushing. Attributing the ongoing power cuts to the Telangana agitation, Tran-sco superintending engineer, Mr H. Harnath Rao, said that these power cuts would be cancelled immediately after increase in power production/supply.