The lawyers of Agartala court on Wednesday came out on the street protesting a prolonged power cut in the West Tripura District and Session court complex for the past two days after the Cyclone Remal hit Tripura on Monday. Despite repeated complaints allegedly the power supply restoration team did not respond.

Two days after the cyclonic storm ‘Remal’ hit the state, power supply across Tripura including several places in the capital city Agartala has not  yet been restored, which irked the people and prompted them to resort to agitation.

While, on Wednesday the agitated lawyers’ gheraoed a senior official of Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) in the court premises for an hour demanding immediate restoration of power supply.

With the assurance of the time-bound action of Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath, the agitation was withdrawn.

Proceedings in the West Tripura district and session court along with other subsidiary courts were badly affected on Tuesday due to power cut from the previous night. The electricity supply remained disrupted on Wednesday also and several serious cases are not being heard and the judges offices could not function due to prolonged power cuts, said an agitating lawyer.

Two days after the cyclone Remal hit the state, power supply in many places across the state including several locations of the capital city Agartala has not yet been restored irked citizens and prompted them to resort to agitation in many places since Tuesday. The residents have been running out of water supply for two days in major parts of Agartala.

Nobody responded to the calls in TSECL offices across the state and the toll free number was kept disconnected and other numbers remained unanswered for the last two days. The TSECL call offices in the villages were shut down for the last two days to prevent public outrage.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress in Agartala organized a protest rally and staged demonstration in front of TSECL headquarters demanding resignation of Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath and immediate restoration of power supply across the state.

Congress leaders alleged that the Power Minister and his associates have outsourced consumer services related to power to some outsiders for personal benefits and that the outsourced agencies are not working properly, resulting in the immense suffering of common people.

Former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb soon after assuming power outsourced the power services to some private companies through whom the profit making TSECL became a poor corporation in the state in the last six years. Now, these companies are in the process winding up their business in Tripura as TSECL does not have much funds, which is the main reason, these companies are not properly attending the complaints of consumers and the minister is backing them, alleged Tripura Pradesh Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha.

However, Power Minister Nath claimed that TSECL officials and the staff outsourced power restoration agencies have been working relentlessly since Monday night to restore the power.

He said that initial assessment revealed that Remal caused damages to more than the electricity infrastructures worth Rs. 2.50 crore and claimed the power department received over 2000 complaints and more than half of them has resolved so far.

As many as 668 electric poles were destroyed, 234 km of lines were powerless, wires were damaged and 82 transformers were found malfunctioning, said Nath.

He added that the power demand was increased in the Agartala periphery in the month of May due to severe heat waves this year. The use of ACs in homes increased manifolds without informing the power department, which caused an increase in power consumption and damaged power transformers, transmission lines and sudden storm and lightning made the system fragile and vulnerable. .

Meanwhile, leader of the opposition and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury alleged that under the BJP’s rule , the most lucrative TSECL were looted by the cadres and to secure their business, they leased out the service to private companies from outside and added , “ the Left Front built the asset of TSECL fighting against several odds over two decades and now nothing remained. There has been no recruitment for the last six years at the lower level, which caused the suffering today.”

** With Agency Inputs.