SHILLONG: The rampant power failure in various parts of the city has become a growing concern. Such frequent and random disruption in power has become a grave obstacle in the daily life of the people of Shillong today. With the advancement in time and technology, electrical devices have become a norm in the lives of people and the unpredictable nature of the power has baffled the people, making their life anything but easy.
Even more cumbersome is the fact that there is no certainty of time when such outages occur. Although the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has issued a notice providing details of the designated time and area of the predetermined power outage, it has not been quite useful because the board continues to cut off power at their own wish and will.
While there is not a second delay when cutting off power, resuming it does not seem to be easy; sometimes it may be delayed from the designated time by 5 to15 minutes. If this is not enough, random outages occur at odd hours with no fixation on the duration, leaving people wondering when the power would be back. During such dilemma, people turn to seek answers from the MeECL, which, at most times, is extremely unresponsive.
People, today, are immensely dependant on devices running on electricity and require them to go about their regular business. Mobile phones, laptops, geysers, refrigerators—have all become an integral part of our lives today and when they cease to work at unprecedented hours, valuable time and energy are lost.
While personal life is definitely affected, the economy, on the other hand, is not doing a great job either. Work in most offices come to a halt, colleges and schools are forced to pause their education.
However, the main concern here is the dubiousness of it. What the people really want is a closure on the haphazardness, with the MeECL strictly abiding by their notice and becoming more receptive towards the concerns of the people. Otherwise, it will not be long before Shillong too attains widespread notoriety for its power failure.
(Contributed by Siddha Dhar, St. Anthony’s College, Mass Media Dept.)
