New Delhi, June 28 (Inditop.com) The mercury has been hovering above the 40 degrees Celsius for days now. Yet fans are still, air coolers and air conditioners remain silent, and water taps dry.
Power outages lasting for 10 hours and more, water shortage becoming a daily challenge in many areas of the scorched Delhi, and millions of hassled, agitated and hapless residents paint a sorry picture of the capital.
Ragini Patel says she is just tired of all the power cuts and water shortage in the city in this sweltering heat.
“When I got married and came to Delhi three years back, my friends back home in Gujarat were envious. What a great life I would lead, they said. Ha! I wish they had seen me now. There has been a power cut for the past five hours. There is no water because the water pump doesn’t work without power and what’s more – even the food in my fridge has gone bad,” Patel told IANS as she sat fanning herself with her dupatta on the stairs of her flat.
“I really want to shift back to Gujarat and I have been trying to convince my husband. This is the capital of the country, and people have had to take to the streets for basic needs like power and water. How can we even think of calling ourself a world class city?” she said.
Reeling under prolonged power outages – ranging from a couple of hours to 12 hours a day in various areas – the city’s people once again took to the streets Sunday to protest and demanded a solution.
The protests for water and electricity turned violent in Sangam Vihar for the second time in four days when a large number of people protested in front of Delhi Jal Board office. Police had to use force to disperse the crowd which damaged around four buses.
In Lado Sarai, a group of people barged into a BSES office. In Dilshad garden, there were similar protests.
The demand for electricity Saturday reached 4,218 MW – a record in Delhi till now.
Trying to escape the heat, some like 24-year-old Yamini Saikia sat in the air conditioned coffee shop near her home – a place she says she would rather call her “second home”.
“What else? Ten days back I bought an air conditioner – my first expensive buy after I started earning – thinking that I will spend my time comfortably at least as long as I am home. But it’s still as good as new. The power cuts have been so erratic that I have hardly got a chance to use it. It just decorates my bedroom,” she said.
“Helpless, I have started spending time in this coffee shop. I am here in the evening after work, sometimes after dinner, even on my holiday. It’s pathetic,” Saikia said.
With power shortage, water supply was also affected.
While stacks of distilled water bottles – in various sizes from one litre to 20 litres – could be seen in front of the tiniest of neighbourhood grocery shops, water tanks also were seen making rounds – in slums and posh colonies alike.
Abhishek Sharma, a local businessman in Sangam Vihar area, said: “The officials are never present in the office. Who do we go to with our complaints? The ministers don’t have any problem and won’t do much beyond holding meetings, but it’s we, the common man, who suffer.”
