Bareilly: Uttar Pradesh Forest and Environment Minister Dr Arun Kumar chaired a high-level meeting with municipal councillors and officials of the electricity department at the Circuit House auditorium in Bareilly to address growing concerns over electricity-related problems in the city.
During the meeting, the minister expressed strong displeasure over frequent power cuts, low-voltage issues and the rising number of consumer complaints. He directed concerned officials to ensure swift resolution of all pending issues and improve the overall power supply system.
Dr Arun Kumar instructed the electricity department to take effective measures for uninterrupted and regular power supply, repair damaged transformers and dilapidated power lines at the earliest, strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and strictly follow a transparent power cut schedule. He also directed officials to ensure that complaints registered on the toll-free helpline number 1912 are resolved within 48 hours.
The minister further ordered special drives in areas facing high electricity theft and line losses. Emphasising the importance of electricity during the summer season, he said uninterrupted power supply remains a top priority of the government and asked officials to work actively in the field instead of relying only on paperwork.
Councillors present in the meeting highlighted several civic issues from their respective wards. One of the major concerns raised was that electricity department officials often fail to answer public calls. Other issues included replacement of damaged poles, transformers placed dangerously above drains, water supply disruption due to electricity outages, removal of old 11,000-volt lines, and replacement of temporary wooden supports carrying electric wires with proper poles.
Questions were also raised regarding the quality of bunch cables and allegations were made against vigilance teams. Officials from the electricity department informed the meeting that internet cables tied to electricity poles were increasing the load on poles and creating difficulties for linemen during maintenance work.
The minister also directed officials to repair faulty line-fault locator machines and increase the number of linemen to improve response time during outages and emergencies.
He stated that electricity has become as essential as water in daily life and stressed the need to address staff shortages and improve communication with the public. Officials were instructed to answer calls from councillors and residents, or return missed calls promptly. He also ordered a quality inspection of bunch cables, citing repeated incidents of cable snapping and fire hazards, and directed the replacement of weak and rusted poles before accidents occur.
Dr Arun Kumar directed the electricity department to resolve the highlighted issues within 15 days.
Chief Engineer of the Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited, Manish Gupta, acknowledged that power supply problems had increased in recent months due to staff shortages, but said additional teams had now been deployed to improve the situation. He also admitted that officials should respond properly to public calls.
Among those present at the meeting were Sanjeev Agarwal, District Magistrate Avinash Singh, Additional District Magistrate Avinash Tripathi, City Magistrate Rajesh Kumar Verma, Chief Engineer Gyan Prakash and several councillors and senior officials of the power department.
Reported by Akhilesh Chandra Saxena.
