Ghaziabad: Several localities of Indirapuram, including Abhay Khand, Gyan Khand and Nyay Khand, saw intermittent outages through Tuesday and Wednesday. While officials from the power department said work is on to restore electricity, residents of the affected neighbourhood said it has become a part of their daily routine and asked for a permanent redress before the festival season.According to a notice from Ravi Ranjan, junior engineer (JE) in charge of power supply for Abhay Khand, the disruptions are largely due to a fault or cable burnout affecting the 33 kV line in the Green Belt-1 substation. “The affected supply is currently being operated from the Abhay Khand substation as a temporary measure,” he said. Ranjan added that the substation is currently overloaded, and staff are diligently working to restore power as quickly as possible.However, residents remained sceptical of the assurances. Arvind, a local, asked the authorities to share a likely timeframe for the restoration and once again reminded them of the urgency of the situation.Jitendra Pandey, another resident, said the power cuts began at 9am and continued intermittently till 4am. He criticised the management of the power supply and said their oversight has led the situation to become worse.On Wednesday, the situation escalated further, and Harish Kadakoti, who lives in Ward 79 in Indirapuram, said the residents were planning to meet the chief engineer of the power department to raise their concerns.Meena Bhandari, a former councillor from Abhay Khand, said the issue needed to be addressed before the Navratri festivities begin. “Many local organisers are now forced to rely on generators instead of the grid. Any accidents due to dark spots during festivals would solely be the responsibility of the power department,” she said and demanded uninterrupted power supply from 8pm to midnight during the festival.Several residents also complained about lack of coordination between the junior and senior officials of the power department and a subsequent lack of communication to the affected residents.Rajendra P Joshi, general secretary of the Abhay Khand residents’ welfare association, criticised the lack of proactive communication concerning known cable faults and emphasised the need for scheduled repairs during the daytime to minimise disturbances at night. Other locals called for better communication from the electricity department about power outages and advocated timely notifications regarding disruptions and projected restoration timelines to ease the anxiety fostered by repeated outages.Mahendra Pratap said junior officials often work under the directives of senior officials, further complicating accountability and delaying work.In response to ongoing queries, Ranjan assured that the power supply would be restored as teams were on the ground addressing the faults.
