New revenue policy shocker to Thane’s power cut woes

HEAT OF THE MOMENT Residents, industries in many areas from Murbad to Titwala suffer ‘zero power day’ from 10.30 in the morning till 5.30 pm

In this scorching summer, imagine a day’s life without electricity! This is exactly what is happening to millions of Thane district residents on Thursday, courtesy the “strange” government policies.

Since 10.30 in the morning, power was stopped suddenly to many households in Murbad, Shahapur, Ambernath, Titwala and areas in their vicinity. Apart from suffering of the residents, the many industries housed in Murbad and Shahapur, had to see a plummet in their finance graph due to the power cut.

Interestingly, the residents did not give much thought at the 10.30 am power cut, as it is not uncommon in these areas. Later, they panicked and no electric tools worked till 5.30 pm. Officials said the power cut was necessitated by the breakdown of 400KV Kharghar line. Soon after the line went down, MSEDCL which supplies power in the areas, adopted an emergency load shedding policy which resulted in the ‘zero power day’ for the residents and the commercial units.

Things get stranger too with MSEDCL dividing the areas into zones numbered from A to J.

The zones which has the highest revenue generation get A category. Those with less generation are put into the higher alphabet order accordingly. Under this revenue rating policy, MSEDCL cuts off electricity to less revenue generation zones beginning from D in case of emergencies. While residents of A, B and C zones enjoy, others bear the brunt.

When contacted, deputy chief public relations officer of MSEDCL, Bharat Pawar, said restoration work of the faulty line was going on a war footing and the officials are trying to work out some alternatives. “Efforts are on to restore the power supply to normal soon,” he added.