HAVING FAILED to draw the attention of the authorities towards their power woes through road-blockades and sabotage, the residents under the SGPGI area on Friday resorted to the Gandhian way of protest, or rather, ‘Gandhigiri’ .
Instead of shouting slogans like ‘bijli vibhag murdabad’, they sang, “bijli vibhag zindabad,” apparently in a bid to make the LESA officers feel ashamed of themselves and do something to improve the power supply in the area.
Around 100 people wearing Gandhi caps formed a human chain at the petrol pump near the SGPGI on Rae Bareli Road at 12 pm. They did not put up any road blockade or indulge in sabotage at the local sub-station as protestors usually do. Instead they chose ‘Gandhigiri’ to attract the attention of the authorities to their problems.
Later, LESA’s local SDO RK Singh reached the spot to accept the memorandum from the protestors.
According to convener of Samajik Sarokar Manch, Dr PK Gupta, who spearheaded the protest, the power situation in Saraswati Puram and other localities around the SGPGI has been very grim for last six months.
“There is hardly any electricity supply at night.”. This, he pointed out caused a lot of inconvenience to the patients and their attendants staying in guesthouses in the locality. He said as part of medical tourism, patients came to the SGPGI from various states. A good number of patients and their attendants stayed in the guesthouses outside the hospital. But non-availability of electricity for hours together made their life hell. A few guest houses that ran generators for a few hours also caused inconvenience to the patients due to the noise and air pollution, Gupta said.
{{/usCountry}}“There is hardly any electricity supply at night.”. This, he pointed out caused a lot of inconvenience to the patients and their attendants staying in guesthouses in the locality. He said as part of medical tourism, patients came to the SGPGI from various states. A good number of patients and their attendants stayed in the guesthouses outside the hospital. But non-availability of electricity for hours together made their life hell. A few guest houses that ran generators for a few hours also caused inconvenience to the patients due to the noise and air pollution, Gupta said.
{{/usCountry}}He said the residents were inspired by the the movie Lage Raho Munna Bhai which depicted how the Gandhian way of protest succeeded in getting work done. “We hope today’s protest will stir LESA to take some steps to improve power supply our area,” he hoped.