The sparking and buzzing/hissing sounds in the new transformers of the Bangalore Electric Supply Company (Bescom) across HSR Layout has become an everday affair. When you ask the officials, they use all the technical words to confuse you no end. All the residents want to know is when will this nightmare end.
Complaints against Bescom’s frequent power shutdowns, fluctuations and damage of equipment is becoming all too common in HSR Layout. Despite raising this issue many times with the authorities, the resident welfare associations have nowhere else to turn for a proper remedy to this problem.
Watch the video above to know how one such transformer behaved in Sector 6 on 9th Main. Only after this video went viral on our channel a few months ago did the Bescom wake up to it and fix this. However, they have not learnt their lessons. There are still many cases that keep cropping up all the time. Whenever there is sparking in the transformers, there are voltage fluctuations at homes and offices across HSR Layout. And this has already resulted in damage of electronic equipment in the neighbourhood, and we have written about them whenever some glaring cases have come to our notice.
Sector 4 resident Fazal Khalil says this is a perennail problem with Bescom that was prevalent even when it was earlier known as the KEB (Karnatake Electricity Board). “I’m losing equipment and electronics ever since I shifted to HSR in 2003,” says Fazal. “I have spoken, written and shared my problems with everyone at Bescom. We need to fight this collectively, with the RWAs (Residents Welfare Association) in the lead.” This time around, due to the inconsistency in voltage around Sector 4, Fazal has lost his air conditioner and treadmill. “Thanks to the ever-incompetent Bescom and their even more incompetent staff, the common man continues to suffer,” he says.
Agrees K Sesha Kumar: “We have to come together and make a strong and joint documented submission to BESCOM Chief Engineer at HSR and escalate to the higher ups, and submit a monetary claim for the loss of equipment in our homes.”
Resident Suresh Bhaskaran advocates that the right equipment can prevent damages. “You need spike arrestors. Many times, it is not so much about high voltage as it is about high amperes of current which blows up equipment. Prevention is better. With all the huge construction machines, this can happen. I am a victim of it. Not once, but twice.”
