After more than 5 days of Cyclone Amphan, innumerable parts of Kolkata, the Capital City of West Bengal, didn’t have Electricity Supply Lines restored. Due to lack of Electricity, water supply too remained disrupted. Public went virtually crazy, morbidly impatient & attacking those who were trying to restore supply lines as linemen were unable to restore them fast.
The delay is being reported to be predominantly due to lack of infrastructure of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, the Private Organisation which is having a Power Distribution monopoly in Kolkata. CESC is sending one person per area (a densely populated huge periphery) to restore the lines without necessary equipments. ELECTRIC Posts had fallen, overhead wires got torn apart & trees had fallen over them complicating the situation to a Herculean extent which couldn’t be restored without proper equipment & right manpower.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation, on the other hand is trying to shed off its responsibility by blaming Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) who, again, preferred not to respond during this crisis. Mayor Firhad Hakim Bobby said, “we don’t have magic sticks, we need time to rebuild.”
Disturbing news came form different parts of Kolkata that Electricity restoration works were being jeopardized due to
—shortage of able manpower who had proper technical know-how
—lack of proper equipment
Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation seems not to have modern equipment. Hence Public is getting furious, indulged into violence which also assumed political colour in some areas of South Kolkata namely Parnasree, Behala.
Apart from lack of infrastructure of CESC & shortage of right manpower with desired technical ability in both CESC & WBSEDCL, lack of earnest administrative initiative too appears to be another major cause of the jeopardy. West Bengal Government, Kolkata Municipal Corporation & CESC—none of them are able to act upon the crisis first. Hence, PUBLIC GRIEVANCE is touching the summit, such that the law n order situation may worsen any moment.
Army jawans have been deployed & they are busy. However, Army jawans are unaware of nitty gritty of supply lines here. Hence, they’re first having to identify line details themselves & then restore. This is taking time. The situation could have improved faster had right persons been simultaneously deployed by CESC to liaise with the Army jawans guiding them about local supply line nitty gritty to facilitate faster restoration by a cohesive team work. This teamwork could have been facilitated only by right liaison from WB Government. However, that’s not quite happening indicating gross administrative failure of the present Government. Aggrieved & impatient people are growling why didn’t West Bengal Government call for Army help immediately after the cyclone.
Two ex-Mayors of Trinamool Congress too are bitterly critical of the present mismanagement. Under such conditions, more media coverage is required to ensure quicker relief to people’s suffering.
Debjani Bhattacharyya