Power cuts made 'official' in TN, Karnataka

POWERLESS DOWN SOUTH: A poor monsoon has forced the state governments to opt for power cuts and load shedding.

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Bangalore/Chennai: Starting Monday, Tamil Nadu will have an official power cut everyday. Fighting against a 1000 Megawatt power shortage, every village, town and city will face a power cut of up to four hours. Luckily for Chennai, the duration would only be an hour….

Residents say that it is the night time which is difficult without electricity. Others say that there is nothing official about the announcement because even without it, they face up to four hours of a power cut almost daily.

The power crisis has been caused by a fall in production at hydroelectric plants, thanks to a poor monsoon. Power generation from windmills is also below par.

While the big shops and malls will hardly face any problem by these one hour power cuts, it would be the common man who will feel the heat of the power shortage. Some smaller shops cannot afford a generator, but they can also not afford to let go of customers for one hour everyday. They can only hope that the power cut doesn't last beyond an hour.

In Karnataka too, the power crisis is acute as a shortfall of almost 700 megawatts is causing unscheduled power cuts.

Anuradha Murthy who teaches toddlers at a play school says, "There are so many powercuts in a day, it's very difficult. Children can't read books and it also gets very hot for them."

The state government has now decided on load-shedding, the schedule for which will be decided on Monday. What's making things worse is that Bangalore has seen an increase in power consumption by almost 30 per cent.

(With inputs from Abhirr VP in Bangalore)