By Viju Mangalore for Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore
Puttur, March 30: The past few days have been a hell experience to the people of the state with unscheduled power cuts. The breakdown of the power station at Orissa created this condition wherein work was affected during the daytime and sleep at night.
Although this problem was solved once regular power was ensured, this village in Puttur was drowned in darkness for four days.
Valalu, a village at Bajatthur in Puttur taluk, was in the darkness for the four days, thanks to Mescom. Sheer neglect on the part of the Mescom officials resulted to this happening. The shocking fact is that the Mescom head office in Mangalore had no clue about this.
A village with around 300 houses, Valalu plunged into darkness when the transformer in the village developed a technical snag on Wednesday, March 22. Although the residents complained to the Mescom sub division in Uppiangady on Thursday March 23 nothing much happened. Apart from assurance, which came freely, nothing moved.
A day passed by and power was not restored even on Friday, March 24, which compelled the villagers to lodge a complaint at the Uppinangady sub division. The arrival of a transformer from Mangalore to replace the existing one lengthened the wait, which put the entire village into darkness. Even on Saturday March 25 the 300-odd houses fought the laxity of the officials and the darkness which shrouded their village.
The ones who were severely affected were students, especially those who are taking up their SSLC and PU exams. That’s not all. The village went dry, as water supply to the entire village was the also disrupted. The only source of water under Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme requires power to pump the water and in absence of power there was no water to the village.
It was after four days of darkness that power supply was restored. The new transformed was installed on Saturday night but functioned only on Sunday, March 26.
Words are not enough to express the misery of the people who had no power, no water and the future of their children at stake just because of the irresponsibility of Mescom officials.
The interesting fact is that the Mescom head office in Mangalore never knew about this and thus did nothing!