Wakad resident writes to MSEDCL to resolve continuous power cut issues
Akash Dhanurkar————————————————————————————–
The growing complaints on the electricity power cut off due to the damage caused to the underground electric cables has been on the rise. Even the officials have been reminded regularly about the damages caused to the MSEDCL properties but the power company has failed to address the complaints.
A resident of Palash society from Wakad, Kiran Vadgama, has now written an open letter to the MSEDCL officials regarding ‘dadagiri’ and ‘negligence’ of road contractors causing power cuts and financial loss of the societies who have to rely on generators run on diesel despite not being at fault.
The open letter which went viral on Whatsapp mentioned,
“Dear Sir,
Above is the (poor) condition of our electricity cables.You will not find a 100 meter stretch of cable anywhere in Wakad which is not damaged – rather I will use the word BANDAGED.
This is all due to the sheer negligence bordering on dadagiri of the road contractors who have without due diligence dug up the roads of Wakad and damaged the whole electrical infrastructure.
Sir, in the last 36 hours we have had more than 10 hours of electricity outages. If we take 380 societies in Wakad, collectively, more than 26600 litres of Diesel has been BURNT – WASTED IN THE LAST 36 HOURS ALONE, amounting to approximately Rs 20,00,000/- Yes sir, 20 lacs.
-SHEER CRIMINAL WASTE OF NATURAL RESOURCES, OUR HARD-EARNEDMONEY AND ADDING TO NOISE AND AIR POLLUTION DUE TO THE CONTINUOUS AND CONSTANT RUNNING OF GENERATORS.
RESPECTED SIR,THIS IS NOT ONE OF THE INCIDENTS.THIS OCCURS AT AN AVERAGE FREQUENCY OF AT LEAST ONE TIME IN A WEEK AND IS GOING ON SINCE MORE THAN TWO YEARS.
Whom will you all hold responsible for the apathy and the sorry state of affairs we as residents and consumers are in?
– Who is going to pay 100s of crores to replace the damaged electricity infrastructure Sirs – Has any one of you given a thought to it, said Kiran Vadgama Chairman of Palash CHS Ltd.
As Pune Pulse reached out to Kiran Vadgama, he said, “This is not just the condition of Wakad, but entire PCMC is struggling because of it. I have written mails to Chief Minister and other authorities, but no one ever responded to this query. Whom do we approach? Why should citizens sit helpless when we have paid tax for our basic rights? Nothing is going to happen as we have lost our hopes.”
Pune Pulse escalated the issue to MSEDCL official Shivaji Waiphalkar, he said, “When we receive complaints for cable cut, we immediately bandage it.”
Upon questioning that why has MSEDCL not taken any action against these fearless road contractors, Waiphalkar said, “We have written mails to the PCMC commissioner regarding it, yet no action has been taken. Even we are somewhere helpless.”
Pune Pulse reached out Rahul Kalate, Corporator of Wakad area to raise the issue at political level, he mentioned that “There is no co-operation between the authorities and the leaders at the corporation level. These leaders are only concerned about giving out contracts. Corruption is causing problems to the citizens.”
Nishikant Raut, spokesperson of the MSEDCL, upon being questioned that isn’t MSEDCL, too, responsible for this problem faced by the tax paying citizens, he said “Without informing us the road contractors start digging the roads. So, it is obvious that the cables will be damaged. They get permission from the civic authorities. If they inform us then we might even ask one of our authorities to be present at the site to avoid any damage to the cables. We had written to commissioner about this situation, but no action has been taken yet. So, we try to bandage the cables and regulate the electric supply at earliest period to ease the struggle of citizens.”
Sanjivan Sangle, a resident of Moshi and a member of Moshi – Charholi – Chakan ousing society federation, said, “The road contractors are ofcourse responsible for this issue, but equally MSEDCL officials too, are responsible for not giving the cables a depth of 4 – 5 feet from the surface. I am not sure whom do we approach when neither corporation nor the MSEDCL is taking responsibility to resolve this growing issue.”
A resident from Pradhikaran, Mahaveer Patil, too, voiced his regret for paying tax yet not getting basic rights. He said, “Power cut has become a daily task for the authorities. How long do they keep cutting the power in the name of maintenance? This has become a blame game where no one takes the responsibility.”
