5.50 am, 22nd October 2008
I painstakingly woke up in the morning for the 1st time in 6 months to witness the launch of India's 1st moon probe, Chandrayaan-1 scheduled at 6.20 am and to see the excitement in the mission control. PSLV's been always been successful in past couple of years, so I was fairly convinced enough that it would be a successful launch, even considering the uncertainty factor. Then it struck at 6.00am!
The power was cut off. Load shedding had begun. The most outrageous part is the uncertainty in the timings of load-shedding. Nowadays papers declare schedule, which is seldom followed by the Electricity Board. It's as per the convenience of theirs. This monsoon was the worst in Maharashtra, with upto 7 hours of power cut in cities while 12 hours in rural areas. Lack of rain was the main reason. Another important point is load-shedding isn't uniform everywhere. Some areas have almost zero load-shedding while some have as high as 12 hours, worst being rural areas. I dont get the logic behind this asymmetry and discrimination. Industries and citizens alike are hit by this. Other incident occured on the eve of Commonwealth Youth Games, with power down for 2 days.
The behavior of the board is not very pleasing either. They dont care to communicate the people the reason as well as answer any questions raised. Its been time since the MSEB's been privatised, but nothing seems to have changed. The power crisis needs to be tackled asap. The contentious Nuclear deal maybe a step in this direction.
Hi PointSingularity86
ReplyDeleteI've placed you on my blogroll.
So it seems to be lack of rain (for hydro power?) rather than too much rain that causes the blackouts or "load shedding"?
Discrimination in favor of cities seems to be standard for all services. It makes political and economic sense to service the higher polulations.
In Australia as well privatisation of electricity hasn't improved things - especially as distribution is a natural monopoly.
Pete
Thanks for your comments sir.
ReplyDeleteWell, rain or no rain, either of the reasons are enough for power cuts. They certainly dont bother to answer to citizens. I'm certainly not against load-shedding,. Some months ago Pune Model was followed in which there was no power cutoff. I think that was quite unnecessary.
Waiting for your new posts!!!