Pradhikaran residents struggle for regular power supply; threaten to agitate
Akash Dhanurkar —————————————————————————
Few hours of power cuts in Maharashtra’s financial capital and the whole world feels bad. But for residents of Pradhikaran, it is a daily affair not just for one but for more than two years. Every day the residents have to struggle to finish their daily chores as they fear that prolonged power cuts might keep their tasks unfinished.
Pradhikaran residents have time and again voiced their concerns regarding uninformed power cuts on any given day and constant power failure problems in all the sectors of the area. The residents have been following up complaints with the MSEDCL authorities and the local politicians for the last two years, but no action has been taken yet.
According to the information shared by Sagar Kulkarni, a resident of Sector 27, staying in the area since the last 35 years, he said, “The main problem of the constant power failure in the area is an unplanned surge in the population. If you see in the last 35 years, the population in the area has been booming. I have seen many examples in the area where a single family of 6 – 8 people used to stay in a single Bungalow. Later, when they sold the plot, a residential colony came into place and then there was a rise in the number of families living in the area. This sudden rise is causing problems related to sudden and constant power failure.”
He further continued, “Government body has never played an active role in resolving the problem, neither has MSEDCL. Areas like LIG colony have several illegal construction of houses and shops, which obviously exhausts all the resources.”
In Pradhikaran, almost 80 % of the residents have constructed multi level houses and have rented them out, which has not just brought pressure on the electric consumption, but even traffic management has been disrupted somewhere.
Upon talking to Vaibhav Sharma, another resident of the area from Sector 27, while harshly criticizing the condition of the area, said, “These MSEDCL authorities deny the fact that we are facing power failure almost on a regular basis. Every time they give a reason for tree falling or a cable cut, which also means that there are no proper and standard equipment used by MSEDCL. How many times do we complain? There is no proper intimation of power cut. I am not sure how they count this area in a smart city?”
Another resident, Atul Inamdar, who, too, expressed his displeasure over the unresolved problem, said, “Last year, we held a meeting with area ex MLA Anna Bansode and the MSEB authorities, only hoping that power failure problem in area like Pradhikaran will be resolved. But, to our surprise, even today we have to suffer from uninformed power cuts during work from home. How can we work? Is it really a part of the smart city? I doubt.”
One of the sources said that most of the time cable is cut due to the irresponsible digging by civil contractors. MSEB is aware of this issue, but the engineer is failing to escalate this issue at a top level in the Corporation.
Reaching out to Nishikant Raut, spokesperson of MSEB, he denied any such problems in the area. He said, “I am not aware of this problem.”
Upon asking that this problem has been existing in the area for the last two years, how can he be unaware of it. He said, “Yesterday and today, due to the cloud burst, there was power failure. But I doubt if there is regular power failure in the area. However, I will take a note of this situation and take a follow up from the area in charge.”
It is strange that when the majority of the citizens are complaining regarding power failure for the last two years, yet MSEB is unaware of the problem. The situation has different angles, yet there is no conclusion to the long pending problem, neither on political level or MSEB level.
Anna Bansode ex MLA on the issue said, “I have set up a meeting with the MSEDCL authorities regarding sanctioning budget for underground cables. I shall look into this matter too.”
In order to escalate the issue, Pune Pulse tried reaching out to mayor of the city, Usha Dhore, and the opposition leader, Raju Misal, who is also the area corporator, but neither of them responded to the calls.
The residents have threatened to go on strike if the issue is not resolved.
