Frequent power outages have been an issue in India that people continuously face, particularly those in the rural parts of the country. Though several steps have been taken to address this concern, some parts have continued to face frequent power outages. Generally, people express their dissatisfaction over it by holding protests, but in Uttarakhand's Haridwar district, a Congress MLA decided to cut electricity to officials' houses, expressing his anger.
The Congress MLA was identified as Virendra Jati, who is a legislator from Jhabreda in the Haridwar district. A video has also gone viral on social media showing Jati climb a pole and cut the power to the houses of three of the department's officials. However, India TV Digital cannot independently verify the veracity of the video.
In the video, it could be seen that Jati, along with his supporters, used a ladder to climb the electricity pole outside the official residence of Superintending Engineer Vivek Rajput at the Boat Club and cut off the electricity connection to his house.
Later, he went to the official residences of Chief Engineer Anupam Singh and Executive Engineer Vinod Pandey, and cut the electricity to their houses.
Electricity department files complaint
The electricity department has filed a complaint against Jati at the Roorkee Civil Lines police station. In its complaint, the department alleged that the Congress MLA cut the power without a proper shutdown and it could have led to a major accident.
"This was not only a violation of rules but also a direct interference in government work," the department alleged.
Jati justifies action
However, Jati justified his actions and alleged that there have been unannounced power cuts for five to eight hours a day in his area, which has caused distress to the public and led to losses among businesses. He claimed he had raised the issue with the electricity department multiple times in the past 10 days but it did not pay heed.
Jati said that the officials were in a bad state after just one hour of a power cut, while the public suffered for hours every day without electricity.
