Power, water woes continue as Delhi sizzles

NEW DELHI - Massive power cuts and water shortage coupled with the rising mercury continued to make life difficult for Delhiites and many residents took to the streets in protest Friday. To make matters worse, Met officials said that severe heat conditions would prevail in north India in the coming days.

The national capital recorded a maximum temperature of 42.4 degreeS Celsius, four notches above the average, while the minimum settled at 31.4 degrees Celsius, two degrees above average.

Angry over the power and water shortage, people in various parts of the city Friday came out on the roads protesting the Delhi government’s failure to tackle the problem.

At several places, including Tilak Nagar, Paharganj and localities in east Delhi, people blocked traffic, damaged buses and vandalised offices of power providers, officials said.

“There is no light and no water for the last two days and nobody is listening to us. We have made several complaints to authorities but all in vain,” said Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Tilak Nagar in west Delhi.

East, north and outer Delhi were powerless for six to nine hours Thursday night following the failure of a power grid in the capital.

According to a Delhi Transco Limited official, the city Thursday morning faced a gap of 1040 MW of power between availability and demand due to failure of the grid in Loni in east Delhi. The average gap is around 50 to 150 MW.

With the power situation deteriorating in the capital, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has asked the discoms to publish the schedule of power cuts in the city so that people can plan their day accordingly.

The Met department, meanwhile, said the heat wave conditions would continue for the next couple of days across north India.

But the capital may also witness dust storms and thunderstorms following western disturbances over the capital, a weather official said.