Students in Telangana suffer due to power cuts

Hyderabad: Officials’ claims of providing uninterrupted supply during the exams have been proven false as Class X students appearing for their annual examinations are hit by frequent power outages during the day and at some places, at night too.

“There is no power supply and the fans do not work. It’s horrible at our centre,” said Srilasya of Sri Chaitanya Techno School, who is writing her exams at Gowtham Model School in Dilsukhnagar area.

“Both on Monday and Tuesday, there was no supply. On Monday, it even became dark for some time due to inclement weather. It’s difficult for us,” said another student Shadan, at Kothapet area.

The situation was more or less the same in several areas in the city. As sudden rains battered the city, as many as 75 breakdowns were registered under TSSPDCL limits.

More than 31 places were officially mentioned as worst-hit.

Several parts of the city plunged into darkness and it took from one to five hours to restore supply, officials admitted.

The situation has been worse ever since the start of the exams and officials are facing an uphill task. As per the complaints received by this newspaper, power outages were reported from Hyderguda, Shaikpet, Bahadurpura in Charminar division and Kalyan Nagar. Even upmarket areas like Jubilee Hills (Ayyappa Society) and parts of Gachibowli were hit by power outages. The reasons cited by the officials were routine. Breakdowns were mostly due to “tree branches falling on supply lines”.  

“Rain played havoc with the system. It is also not correct that we are delaying rectification. The moment we come to know about it, our staff are on the job. I myself got two complaints from Himayatnagar area and I rushed my engineers immediately,” said U. Satish Kumar Reddy, AGM, Metro Zone.

“There are no ELRs and the core of the city’s power demand grows to 22 MU a day and we are meeting it,” he added.

The situation is so bad that nearby power station officials do not know about power breakdowns till consumers complain. TSSPDCL has spent crores on computerisation and on a system like SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), which gives information about the status of the power supply in various areas, but the situation has not improved. Outdated breakers in some feeders are also causing tripping, said a few field staff.

“I am trying to streamline the system but it takes some time. There are many issues to be addressed,” said J. Srinivasa Reddy, director of operations.