Power cut on 8230;

PUNE, Oct 12: If the rain Gods continued to vent their fury, the residents of Pune Camp had to put with the additional woes of having to ...

PUNE, Oct 12: If the rain Gods continued to vent their fury, the residents of Pune Camp had to put with the additional woes of having to go without power for a better part of the day. The prime shopping centres at M G Road and Aurora Towers remained without power at frequent intervals totalling around eight hours today adversely affecting the business of various shopkeepers already hit by recession.

8220;This is a frequent occurrence during Diwali,8221; said Sheelvant Basavraj, proprietor of Karnataka Hosiery. The rains are already playing havoc and now the frequent cuts. 8220;Why don8217;t they provide a consistent supply8221;. An enraged Basavraj pointed out that the power tarrifs had already been hiked three times in the past. 8220;We are willing to pay . But we are entitled to an uninterrupted supply,8221; he said, demanding to know why the MSEB did not plan for these eventualities.

They cannot brush say this will happen due to load-shedding, he argued. Shyam Sahni, who runs a marriage bureau on the sixth floor of Espanya Heights had to conduct interviews in candlelight.

8220;I had to send my peon with candles down with this couple who had come for a meeting to go elsewhere for discussions. 8220;This must be the first matchmaking effort in candlelight,8221; he said in a lighter vein. 8220;I have lived here for the last 35 years but the power situation had worsened in the last two years,8221; he observed. According to Anand Kocchar, chairman of the Pune Camp Merchants8217; Association, this was a frequent occurrence in Pune Camp. 8220;Yeh sab kudrat ka khel hai This is the will of the Almighty,8221; he said, explaining that a number of letters written by the association to the Wadia College complaint centre produced little results. 8220;This is Diwali time. Recession has already badly affected us. To add to our woes, we now have to put up with power cuts for hours together8221;.

When contacted chief engineer of MSEB Ashok Shinde who ruled out any load-shedding programme seemed surprised to learn of the power failure in Camp area.8220; This is the first I am hearing about this,8221; he told this reporter. However, persistent efforts to get through to Wadia complaint centre and executive engineer of Bund Garden Division V L Vora was not available for comment. Interestingly, even the Central Control Room meant to assist the citizens during times of crisis washed their hands off the power failure saying that they could not get through to the Wadia College complaint cell and had no idea why the frequent cuts had occurred.