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Power cuts in Ludhiana leave students in lurch
Recent unscheduled power cuts in Ludhiana district are leading to an array of problems for the students
Recent unscheduled power cuts in the district are leading to an array of problems for the residents. One such electricity outage on Monday left students of government schools, which don’t have any power backup, with no option but to study in the scorching heat.
Many smart schools of the district including, Government Primary School, Moti Nagar, and Government High School, Kot Mangal, don’t have generators or other battery backup devices. The school officials are using their resources to arrange power.
“Most of the schools in the periphery of Ludhiana do not have electricity backups. There was no electricity in our school on Monday. Students were unable to focus as they had to study in the heat. Therefore, we requested the management of the nearby gurudwara to give us their generator as they had an extra one there,” said a government school teacher.
Another teacher stated that the education department’s tall claims regarding making schools ‘smart’ had fallen flat as they don’t even have power back up to ensure that students can focus on learning instead of the heat.
“Smart schools must have generators but, many of them don’t. Around 400 students in my school were sitting without electricity. It was difficult for us to teach in such a condition,” said a teacher.
Residents also faced a harrowing time as long power cuts were witnessed in various parts of the city including Model Town, Shastri Nagar, BRS Nagar, Haibowal Kalan, Haibowal Khurd, Kohara, Janta Nagar, Noor Enclave, Surinder Nagar, Kalyan Nagar, Ghumar Mandi, Sant Nagar, and Cemetery Road etc.
Shikha Aggarwal of BRS Nagar said, “There was no electricity in the morning for around three hours from 7:45 am. There was again an outage in the afternoon from around 1 pm to 3:30 pm. Even in the evening, the area didn’t have any electricity from 6:50 pm to 8 pm. This is annoying as the inverters are also not getting enough time to charge.”
Antriksh Sharma of Haibowal Kalan said, “I have a 15-day-old daughter. Usually, we maintain an adequate distance from her to prevent any infection. With so many power outages, it has become difficult for us to maintain social distancing at home as all of us sit together in one room to prevent the inverter from running out of battery.”
No respite for few more days
Meanwhile, Surjit Singh, XEN, Janta Nagar, said that this may continue due to the shortage of coal in the state and the country.
“The scarcity of coal has led to power outages in the state. The government is working on it but, people will have to face such issues for some more days,” said Singh.
According to Rajiv Sumra ASE, City Division, the power outage varied from three to five hours in various areas of the city.
“The power cuts are imposed as per the directions of power controller, Patiala. The rotational load shedding is done as per the demand or requirement in the state,” said Rajiv
He added that there are 35 sub-stations in Ludhiana that supply power to all electricity divisions in the district.
