The difficulties of common people have increased further with the Damodar Valley Corporation increasing the load shedding hours over pending bills worth Rs 4124 crore with Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) since Sunday.

Expressing disgust over the situation, Manoj Keshri, a resident of Hetli Bandh locality of Jharia and a painter said, “The long hours of power cuts have made our life a virtual hell as besides facing darkness we are also getting difficulty even in operating motors required for filling of the overhead tanks.”

Echoing sentiments, former councillor of ward number 37 of Jharia, Anup Sao said, “The water supply situation in Jharia is also linked to the regular power supply. An uninterrupted power supply for 8 hours is required for filling up of the intake well of water treatment plant of Jharkhand Mineral Area Development Authority at Jamadoba. We apprehend that water supply will also be affected due to the irregular power supply,” and added that they would demand the immediate resolution of crisis otherwise they will be compelled to come on the road.

Ratnesh Kumar, a resident of Karkend Bazar in Dhanbad said, “At a time when online classes are taking place in the majority of educational institutions, the situation has turned so pathetic due to increase in power cut hours that we are finding it very difficult to even charge the laptops and smartphones which are very crucial for uninterrupted classes of our children.”

Former president of Bank More Chamber of Commerce, Surendra Arora who is also president of Shakti Mandir Management Committee of Dhanbad and owns a gift shop at Bank More locality of Dhanbad said, “The long hours of load shedding being carried out by DVC is totally unwarranted and uncalled for and not in the interest of common power subscribers.”

“If at all the DVC has any issue with the JBVNL over the pending bills it should have been settled between the duo and common customers should not have been penalised,” further said Arora and added that the traders are also facing difficulty as at a time when the recession has affected the market and they are compelled to bear the extra cost of inverters, generators and other power back up facility.

Notably, DVC began the load shedding from December 21 due to pending dues worth around Rs 4142 crore and again increased the power cut to 50% since yesterday due to non-payment of dues.