Major power outages in Chandigarh as employees go on strike
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Feb, 2022 02:29 PM
Chandigarh, Feb 22 (IANS) Many residential and industrial parts of the city faced major power outages as employees of the Electricity Department went on a three-day strike from Monday night in protest against the privatisation of the department.
Most of the places have been facing snapping of power since midnight.
Even elective surgeries at the Government Medical College Hospital in Sector 32 (GMCH 32) have been postponed.
"Most of the Industrial Area Phase I and II witnessed blackouts since Monday night. Officers are showing helplessness in restoring power. Hope they arrive at some solution for the next two days," said Chamber of Chandigarh Industries President Naveen Manglani.
Officials told IANS that the situation may remain the same for two days more as 1,000 employees began a 72-hour strike on Monday night.
Residents claimed that three helpline numbers set up for registering the complaints have not been responding to the calls.
Chandigarh Adviser Dharam Pal told the media they will investigate the reasons behind the power disruption. "Action will be taken against those responsible," he added.
UT Powermen Union President Gopal Dutt Joshi blamed the winds for the disruption of power in Chandigarh.
"We have not disrupted the electricity supply, but we are on strike. Employees hired from neighbouring Punjab and Haryana probably are not able to detect the fault," he added.
The Customs officials on Sunday recovered an unclaimed bag containing 'cocaine capsules' valued at Rs 15 crore from the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, an official said. The official said that it was seized and a case was lodged and efforts were being made to identify the accused who abandoned the bag.
In the run-up to the February 20 Assembly elections in Punjab, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's chopper was not allowed to take off from Chandigarh on Monday owing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's movement in the state.
The deceased were identified as Rukaiya Khatoon, Shahzaad, Afreen and Danish, all residents of J.J. Colony while two women -- identified as Fatima and Shahnaaz, were rescued and sent to the hospital. "Both of them are out of danger," a police official said.
Honey was presented at the court after his Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody expired on Friday. Earlier, on two occasions, the court had granted ED the custody of Honey.
Wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, 'the Great Khali', on Thursday joined BJP. Khali has joined the BJP in presence of Union Minister Jitendra Singh and party national general secretary Arun Singh and Member of Parliament Sunita Duggal at party national headquarters.
Anand Singh is a businessman living in RS Puram of Coimbatore and now he has hit the headlines after filing his nomination papers as an independent candidate from ward no 71 for the Urban local body elections in Coimbatore.
