Polls over, outages return to Noida

NOIDA: Power rostering returned to the city a day after assembly bypolls were held on Saturday. All sectors, including 11, 12, 19, 20, 22, 26, 27, 34, 50 and 61 saw two-hour rostering from 11.40am to 1.40pm, and again from 5 to 7pm.
While UP faced power shortage during the recent bypolls in 11 assembly and one parliamentary constituency, Noida had been exempted from rostering, according to Arvind Rajvedi, superintending engineer of Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (PVVNL)."We resorted to bare minimum rostering of 1-2 hours, including in industrial sectors, since Aug 31. That too stopped after September 2, once weather conditions improved," said Rajvedi, who claimed there were no poll-related instructions on rostering, unlike in Meerut and Ghaziabad.
However, as soon as the bypolls were over, the situation changed from Monday morning as residents complained of power rostering. "Today we had two hours of outage in the morning, and again in evening. The night is still to follow," said Sector 22 RWA president Pradeep Vohra.
Sector 11 RWA general secretary Suresh Krishnan said there was no intimation of the four-hour rostering. "At least officials from the electricity department can send intimation on power cuts," said Krishnan.
Vipin Malhan, president of Noida Entrepreneurs Association (NEA), said, "Elections are over and power cuts are back. The situation will get clearer after the poll results," said Malhan. Rajvedi maintained Monday's rostering could be a temporary one. "We're still gathering information. Power rostering across UP continues year round. Although Anpara B power plant was revived over the weekend, UP is short by over 1,000 MW and distribution suffers accordingly," he said.