HSR Layout residents protest against BESCOM for frequent power cuts

By Aratrika Dey
Yesterday, HSR Layout natives protested in front of the BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) office in HSR Layout. They complained about the poor electrical supply in the area. They met with the Executive Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer Jyoti Prakash and MH Jagdish respectively. They wanted the officials to address the problem of frequent power cuts and remove the footpath encroachment by BESCOM and filling the potholes created by them during the underground cable installation.

Persistant problem

HSR Layout is no stranger to power cuts and voltage fluctuations. Recently, however, these problems have become more inconvenient for the residents as many are working from home. “For the last three days, there have been frequent power cuts, and yesterday there was no supply for more than twenty hours in the 7th and 2nd sectors, and many parts of HSR”, says HE Chandrashekhar, Chairman of Federation of HSR Layout Resident Welfare Associations.

It’s going to be a year now that schools and offices have shifted their processes online due to the risk of COVID-19 infection. “It is difficult to work without electricity in this situation,” says Chandrashekhar.” The children suffered yesterday as they were unable to take their pre-board exams.” Without power, daily lives too are disrupted as residents run out of drinking water and freshwater needed for chores. Without power, the water from the sump and borewell cannot be pumped into the overhead tanks.

BESCOM reasoned that the disruption was due to the ongoing cable repairs for the KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation) and an electricity ‘feeder’ problem. “They should have informed the public earlier, be it via newspaper or some other medium, so we could prepare for the outage,” says Chandrashekhar.

Work from home techies have had it bad. “I was in a work meeting in the evening when the electricity went out,” says Sector 1 resident Ayshi Banik. “Thankfully, we had power back-up so I could still attend the meeting. But at night, even the back-up ran out, and I could not continue to work. This has been happening frequently, and is extremely inconvenient!”

Twitter is swamped with complaints

While some residents sought out offline measures and participated in the protest, others have been tweeting up a storm on Twitter, lodging complaints about power cuts and low voltage in HSR, by tagging the official Twitter handle of BESCOM.

BESCOM promises action

As complaints started piling on Twitter, BESCOM sent out a tweet indicating that there is a power cut in HSR Layout, and also mentioning the areas and the estimated restoration time. Similarly, the officials have been actively replying to complaints made on social media. According to Chandrashekhar, the authorities have promised to resolve the issue in 48 hours.