City takes to protests against power blues

KANPUR: The city experienced severe power rostering on Tuesday which lasted for over seven hours. This led to protests at different substations. People stepped out on roads.
The rostering was unscheduled. It was done even during the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. There was no power in the city on Monday night also. During the day, the city witnessed power cuts for many times.Local faults added to the woes of the people.
The residents of Jajmau, including women, gheraoed the Jal Sansthan office and protested against water crisis in the area. Another lot of the same area reached Jajmau substation and gifted bangles to the Kesco official as a mark of protest against rostering.
The women protestors said that they will gift bangles to other Kesco officials. "If they (Kesco officers) cannot provide us power, they should be gifted bangles and today we have done it," a woman protestor said.
The protestors entered into arguments with the Kesco staff and they held them captive over the issue. The Kesco staff expressed helplessness and said that rostering is being done by system control in Lucknow.
The protestors with buckets and pitchers held a protest at the Jal Sansthan office in Jajmau.
They said that the rostering has deprived them of water supply.
Another protest was held at Barra substation of Kesco, where the locals and traders, under the banner of Dakshin Udyog Vyapar Mandal did 'Gandhigiri'. They gifted rose Kesco officials as a protest against the erratic power supply. They lit candles in the substation to demonstrate that this is how they have to live in darkness when rostering is done.
The Kesco staff remained on the defensive. The people held buckets and hand-made fans to show that they have no water and in the absence of power they used these fans to beat the heat.