Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 23: Tired of unscheduled and frequent power cuts, residents of Awantipora today protested on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway for several hours disrupting traffic.
Reports said that inhabitants of Awantipora town and its adjoining villages assembled on the highway and staged protest against the Power Development Department (PDD) and Government over poor power supply in the area.
The residents said that the electricity is playing hide and seek for past several weeks mostly during the peak hours. “They (PDD) cut power supply up to 16 hours daily. Students taking the exams are badly affected in the absence of electricity,” they said.
The residents including the students, shopkeepers and traders said PDD’s anti-people policy forced them to come on roads and put halt on the traffic movement.
They said that despite paying huge electricity bills on time, the PDD has always followed their trend on curtailment. “We will not pay electricity bill if unscheduled frequent power cuts would continue,” they added.
However, PDD AEE, Peer Abdul Hamid said the main reason of frequent power cuts was over loading on receiving station. “Our receiving station at Awantipora has 630 Ampere capacity and as per agreement, we are supplying sufficient power to our consumers, but due to over consumption by people in these months the receiving station has become overloaded”, he added.
He also said: “There were a little bit disturbances in the sub-transmission line due to snowfall that was the reason the power supply was disconnected in the area.”
Meanwhile, PDD is planning to start a drive against illegal power users in the area to reduce overloading in the area.
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