IN THE DARK: Several neighbourhoods had no power from around 10.30pm to 3.30am on Oct 8
On Thursday night, several neighbourhoods had no power from around 10.30pm to 3.30am, despite repeated assurances that supply would be restored shortly. They kept saying power would be restored within 30 minutes, but it took nearly five hours,” he said. We endure power cuts during the day too, mostly between 2pm and 4.30pm.
P Sukumaran, a social activist, said, “Over the past few weeks, several children in the neighbourhood have been suffering from fever, and a few dengue cases have been reported too.
S Easwaran, secretary of Jyothi Nagar residents’ welfare association, said he contacted the assistant engineer of Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL), Porur division, soon after the outage began. “He told me that power would be restored by 11pm, but after a while his phone was switched off. S Geetha, a resident of Janakiraman Street in Porur, said she spent much of Thursday night manually fanning her children aged two and five. If this continues, residents’ associations across the western suburbs may have to organise a large-scale protest,” she said. He also said, “No prior alerts about maintenance-related interruptions are given to residents; the electricity board should take the issue seriously and come up with a solution.”
Chennai: Residents of the city’s western suburbs, including Valasaravakkam and Porur, have been enduring power cuts lasting up to five hours, disrupting sleep and leaving students, office-goers and families struggling with heat and mosquitoes. I then called ‘Minnagam’ to register a complaint. “Not everyone can afford an inverter. We did not face such issues in this area until Aug. Prolonged power cuts make the situation worse.