Post MP’s nudge, power supply restored in 6 hrs

ALIPURDUAR/ KOLKATA: Working on a mission mode after Abhishek Banerjee intervened; the Power department helped in restoration of power in the thunderstorm-hit districts of Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar on Wednesday.

Banerjee, TMC national general secretary, received distress calls in ‘Ek Daake Abhishek’ helpline with the Higher Secondary (HS) examinations on. He in turn spoke to the Power minister. Within six hours, power was restored in the affected areas.

At around 4pm on Wednesday, rain and thunderstorms hit North Bengal. Two hours of continuous rain along with high speed winds and hail storm disrupted power supply in many areas of the three districts namely Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar. As a result of this, HS examinees of the affected areas were in trouble. Candidates from different parts of these three districts started reaching out to Banerjee through ‘Ek Daake Abhishek’ to flag the power cut issue. Their call for help was answered. Within 6 hours, the power supply was restored.

“Got emergency distress calls on #EkDaakeAbhishek regarding power cuts due to stormy weather in many areas of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri & Cooch Behar today. Keeping the ongoing HS examinations in mind, I have already spoken to the Minister in Charge-Power @aroopbiswasaitc,” Banerjee had tweeted.

In another tweet he mentioned: “More than 250 people have been deployed to work on mission mode for the restoration of power. The issue will be resolved within the next 6 to 8 hours. I am glad to see that this initiative to connect with people is helping us solve their problems on a real-time basis!’’

Power minister Aroop Biswas on Thursday said that power supply was majorly disrupted on Wednesday evening in districts like Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar after thunderstorms lashed several parts of North Bengal.

Around 100 electric poles were damaged in North Bengal while trees fell on power lines in around 250 places.

Power lines were snapped. Insulators were damaged due to lightning in many places. Power services were restored on a war footing by deploying more than 300 employees and senior officials.