Pray, let there be light!

Pray, let there be light!
The Times of India

Bangalore: “Let there be light!’’ This famous line has become Bangaloreans’ daily prayer, thanks to erratic power supply since rains began to lash the city three days back.

Irate citizens are now questioning the city’s ‘hightech’ status. Things were always a little shaky, but it has never been this bad before, they say.

Bangalore’s power supply has for long been in the news, but for all the wrong reasons. Three years ago, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported how Mckinsey, a consulting firm, felt that frequent power cuts could hamper investment into ‘India’s Silicon Valley.’ Today, while the city’s infotech companies and its richer citizens who live in apartments have made their own captive power arrangements, it is ordinary citizens who continue to suffer in darkness.

Chiranjeet Bannerjee is one such aggrieved citizen. “There has been no power on Airport Road since 10 pm last night. We have been trying to call the Airport Road Bescom office but a recorded message says the telephone has been disconnected. It rains in the metros — Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai — but the power never goes off like this,’’ Bannerjee told The Times of India on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, power supply continued to be affected in many parts, following the latest downpour on Monday night. Jayanagar 9th and 4th Blocks, BTM Layout,

Thyagarajanagar, Hanumanthnagar, Gandhi Bazaar, Shankarpuram, HAL II and III Stages, Sarjapur and Airport Roads, Marathahalli, Banashankari were in darkness for most of Monday and Tuesday.

While the city has not experienced a complete blackout of the kind reported in New York in August 2003, or in North India in January 2001, it is something citizens here do not rule out.