Many Kolkatans complained of prolonged power outages and an unhelpful helpline of the city’s lone power utility: problems that are familiar but do not seem to have been addressed as we move from one heat wave to another.
Complaints of an “inactive helpline” poured in from multiple areas served by the power utility CESC. Many said the response they got through recorded voice was of no use, while some said they got no response at all.
“I tried calling the CESC helpline several times early on Thursday. But all I heard was a tailor-made response from a machine. Despite multiple attempts, I failed to reach a CESC representative to whom I could report the problem,” said a resident of Umakanta Sen Lane in Paikpara, in north Kolkata.
The neighbourhood suffered a power outage from 12.40am till 2.30am on Thursday.
“My kids were restless and had to step out into the corridor as they were unable to bear the heat and humidity inside the apartment,” the Paikpara resident said.
A resident of Howrah’s Mullick Fatak Road said his wife tried calling 1912 — the helpline of CESC, the lone power utility for Kolkata and adjoining areas — several times to report an outage in their area, but failed to do so.
“The line was initially busy for several minutes. When she finally got through, a recorded voice asked which language she preferred for the conversation — English, Hindi or Bengali. When my wife pressed the button for Hindi, the machine answered in Bengali: ‘Aapni ekti bhool option tipechen (you have pressed the wrong option)’,” said the Howrah resident.
The Telegraph reported during a spell of heat wave in April that the 1912 helpline had failed many when they needed it the most.
“Just imagine how a person calling 100 (the police helpline) to report an emergency would feel if he or she had to face seven or eight questions asked by a machine. A power cut is an emergency, too,” said a resident of Behala whose area suffered power outages in the past few days.
“Leave aside the discomfort caused by a power outage during a spell of extreme heat and humidity. Many families have patients at home who depend on life-saving gadgets that run on electricity. It is frustrating to be not able to reach a human voice during such emergencies.”
Many vented their anger through social media.
Arpan Chakraborty wrote multiple tweets complaining about 1912 and the fact that even after “lodging multiple complaints nothing happened”.
“Please support, I have ill parents to look after,” he wrote on Thursday.
Amit Laskar, a resident of Bangur, tweeted: “There have been repeated power cuts in Kolkata around Bangur since past few days. We are unable to raise any power outage complaints either or call the support team. This is unprecedented.”
A CESC official said 1912 can handle 400 calls at a time. “We have 160 agents who man 1912 24X7. But when all the agents are busy, only the IVR operates,” the official said.
“We have two more helplines — 033-35011912 and 033-44031912 — which together can handle 600 calls. There is a third helpline, too — 18605001912. Consumers can also WhatsApp complaints at 7439001912.”
CESC officials again identified “usage beyond sanctioned load” as the primary reason for the power outages.
Asked if CESC had any plan to take action against consumers who are consuming power beyond the sanctioned load, the official said: “We appealed to our consumers earlier, too. We will identify the pockets from where such usage is reported and focus on awareness in these areas.”
Kesab Bhattacharyya, a professor of electrical engineering at Jadavpur University, said CESC should consider increasing the overall load capacity in the areas from where usage beyond sanctioned load is reported.
“This can be done by proper planning and laying of cables of higher capacity so that power does not trip even if there is excessive use over the sanctioned load by a few individuals in an area,” he said.
The police said there were reports of protests by affected residents from pockets of Ekbalpore and Cossipore early on Thursday. CESC sent a large generator to Anju Sarai, a locality near the crossing of Ekbalpore Lane and Mominpore Road, between 3am and 6am.