The post Electricity in Imphal: on or off appeared first on KanglaOnline.com.
By Yumlembam Albert
IMPHAL, January 4: Amidst the problems of recurrent violence, conflicts and death, the problem of insufficient power supply in the state has today become one of the most crucial issues.
While the problem has been there for quite sometime, the prolonged period that it has persisted in the state has in fact made most of the people adapt to a lifestyle of darkness once the sun sets.
In their defense the concerned authorities have time and again reiterated that there are several households with illegal power connections and others who are yet to clear their outstanding bills.
Power availability in the state has been limited to a few hours in most localities with certain pockets getting just a couple of hours a day.
Load shedding is imposed at different time slots for different locations.
Yet, power cuts and load shedding durations are increasingly getting extended leading to inconveniences for the people specially those taking up small scale enterprises.
Nityai an owner of a rice mill near Ningthem Pukhri Mapal said “I don’t use generators, so I manage to finish my chores when there is power. It would be much better if the government provides at least 8 hours of power during day time”. He added that using a generator would mean extra costs for buying or hiring the generator plus additional costs for petrol or diesel. “Relying only on the electricity supply means that I cannot take in more customers but there is nothing that can be done till the power supply gets better in terms of more hours everyday,” he added
Meanwhile in a contrasting tone to those of complaints, an automobile workshop owner on conditions of anonymity said “most consumers ignore their bills and this may be a reason for the erratic power supply”.
Erratic and irregular power supply means less profit for the small and medium industries like rice mills and welding workshops.
Conversations with random mill owners and other power based small industries around Imphal East showed that the mill owners, welding and repair workshops are a discontented lot.
According to Laishram Roben, a welding workshop owner near Wangkhei Meihaobam Lampak, “We get power from 7 to 8 in the morning and without a generator, it is hard for us to complete our work which has affected our business in terms of being able to render customer satisfaction”.
On the other hand, most of them were oblivious of the billing system which indicates the authority’s failure to educate its customers on the system.
But while the erratic power supply has been a bane for most, it has also proved to be a boon for some others.
Shops selling inverters and generators are selling more and making more profits due to increasing power cuts in the state. The prices of Moreh generators like the Corolla generator, range from Rs 3000 to 4000, however, the price range sometimes climb up to Rs 8000 in case there is a bandh on the Imphal-Moreh road.
In the meantime, the consumers have no other means than to wait and hope that the power supply gets better in the near future.
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