Some areas reported night-long powercuts
Inquiries with officials reveal that the power backup for such a helpline is only for 10 minutes. Whenever the substation develops a glitch, the helpline goes offline after the issue is not restored within 10 minutes,” said an official. Because it could not provide a reliable power supply to its call centre, tNPDCL itself is to be blamed for Minnagam’s going out of reach. There is lack of coordination among various govt agencies which results in people’s suffering due to unscheduled power cuts.
Meanwhile, contrary to electricity and law minister R Nirmalkumar’s claims that power supply position was stabilised in Tamil Nadu since Saturday, unscheduled power cuts were reported.
Social activist T Sadagopan said it is unacceptable for TNPDCL to say that they were not prepared for the summer-like weather in Sept. “This cannot go on,” he said. “Minnagam call centre is powered by Mylapore 230kV substation. Industries have also started fleeing the pinch of power cuts.