File photo: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa
Power cuts continue to plague Tamil Nadu, in spite of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's emphatic promise that the state will not witness any more cuts after June 1.
In fact, locals now complain about unannounced power cuts, under the pretext of maintenance, which last for up to four hours.
Vidhya Satagopan Srinivasan, a resident of Chennai, says, "We can't plan our life; if the power cut is in the night, we can't sleep. I have gone back to the olden days of installing a stabiliser for my TV".
She has had to replace her microwave oven and refrigerator due to the persistent voltage fluctuation.
"Children can't sleep in the night, so they sleep in the class, unable to concentrate," says her neighbour Ranjani Sridhar.
Tirupur, the textile capital of the state, goes without power for two hours every day.
Ramasamy, a manufacturer, laments the increase in production costs as he has to use a generator, saying, "The increased costs eat into our profits".
In Madurai, hotelier Dr Palanikumar Palaniappan has to spend Rs 700 an hour on his generator so his guests don't walk out.
"People have become more tolerant; power cuts have become a way of life in the state," he said.
Grizilda Miller, an academician, agrees that rural regions have been worst hit by the power cuts.
"It was much better earlier when we had scheduled power cuts," she says.
Another young professional adds, "Even politicians and ministers should face power cuts. It shouldn't just be for voters".
Authorities blame the power shortage on the slow start to the generation of power from wind energy. With the wind speed picking up, they say, there should be no more power cuts as the power generated from wind energy will help them meet the shortage.
Over the last few years, crippling power cuts, some of them over 16 hours long, have forced nearly 2000 units to shut shop in the industrial hub of Coimbatore.
The ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK blame each other for not doing enough to generate more power. The Chief Minister has claimed the power deficit has been brought down from 4000 to 1000 MW and the state has signed deals to procure 3300 MW from August.
While the government ensured stable power supply for domestic consumers before the Lok Sabha elections, locals are disgruntled about once again being taken for granted now that the polls are over.