21 December,2009 09:00 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
As MSEDCL's ambitious zero load shedding programme fails, several parts of Pune continue to go without power for five hours every day
It has been 10 days since the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) promised zero load shedding in the city. However approximately three lakh consumers in the city still face at least seven hours of power cut almost everyday.
The severely affected areas in Pune and outskirts are Bund Garden, Parvati, Nagar Road, Padmavati, Kothrud and Pimpri. In fact, not much has changed after the zero load shedding model was launched.
Pune used to face 5 hours of darkness in addition to an extra two hours on Thursday.
In fact, Kothrud faced nine hours of power cut on December 11, the second day of the zero load shedding model programme.
'Unfair charge'
Vikas Mathkari, leader of opposition PMC, said, "This is absolutely unfair. With 13 lakh MSEDCL consumers
in Pune, we should get uninterrupted power supply.
We are the highest revenue puller and give Rs 450 crore to MSEDCL every month.
And even people below the poverty line are forced to pay 61 paise per unit. BJP will soon start an agitation on the issue."
Of the 25,900 transformers in Pune, and some of which are 20 to 30 years old cause major faults, observed Dr Anjali Dharme, a research scholar and associate professor, electrical department, College of Engineering Pune.
Dharme is a resident of Sinhagad Road and admitted that the area is severely affected since repair and maintenance work is going on at several places.
"We should install new transformers to end the power cut problem," she said.
MLA Girish Bapat, said that MSEDCL is recovering the losses of Dabhol project (Rs 996 crore) by charging 21 paisa even to the customer below poverty line.
"MERC is deliberately ignoring this load shedding in the so called 'zero load shedding' model," he said.
