No electricity, no work from home: Ameenpur residents rue unscheduled power cuts

Hyderabad: Unscheduled power cuts are giving sleepless nights to the residents of Ameenpur area in the Sangareddy district.

For the last many weeks, power is playing hide and seek in the area which has badly hit the normal life.

“Every day, electricity goes off for hours. There is no timing. It goes off anytime. Sometimes I fear if the electricity goes off in the middle of my call with a client, I will lose the job. I have shifted to my sister’s house” said Arun Kumar Subhramanyam, an IT professional from Ameenpur.

Not only working professionals but also the kids who have to join online classes are facing problems. “I don’t have an inverter. My kid has online classes and has to charge devices. Without electricity, it is not possible. Sometimes they miss their classes. Also, because of the fluctuations, we have to turn off the refrigerator,” said Priyanka, a local homemaker.

People noted that they don’t get enough power even to charge their invertors or UPS. “At least we need two hours of continuous power with full voltage so that we can charge inverters. But it seems we are living in a tribal area where the electricity has just reached. Most of the residents are from a middle-class background and don’t have power backup. They rely on electricity” said Nemani Srinivas, another resident.

Residents also said because of power cuts off, their working from home has turned into a nightmare. “I have to wait for hours to finish my work because there is no electricty. Sometimes my collegues help me out with my work. I have now been asked to rejoin the office,” said K Vishwanath, a local resident.

Locals said earlier the electricity department used to inform them about any maintenance work. “But now they don’t inform us. The area engineer gives the same excuse that they are repairing transmission line,” said Surendra Uplanchiwar, resident and an activist.

"I have been living here for the last six years, it's not been a single day that we have got 24 hours of electricity, the electricity department has the same excuse that the area is developing, or the electricity line is passing near to Ameenpur lake so it might get sort circuit. These days we are working from home, in the afternoon for sure the electricity will go for at least an hour," said Chandra Mishra, another resident

Talking to NewsMeter, the local area engineer Devalla Sammaiah said that it happens once or twice in the month when they are doing some maintenance work. “Neither it is regular nor routine,” he said.