Port Blair, Feb. 24: In a totally unheard of precedence, two households of Shore Point Gram Panchayat came under selective implementation of Electricity rule provisions on the night of 14th Feb. As per reports, a couple of personnel from Bambooflat site office first barged in a house hosting a marriage party and brought an abrupt halt to the ceremony by disconnecting electricity to the household at about 8pm in the evening. Similarly Electricity connection to another household also engaged in Marriage Celebration was disconnected at about 11 pm in the night the same day.
In both the instances, the parents (registered consumer) and villagers attending the function pleaded with the officials to allow some time so that rituals connected with the Marriage could be concluded and guests could return to their respective homes. But the electricity personnel ignoring the request preferred to push the household in darkness.
The village Pradhan was thus intimated who rushed to the spot only to find lower rung employees armed with cutting pliers on the spot. When asked about the urgency, they said disconnection has been affected on the orders of the Junior Engineer. Thereafter the Junior Engineer was contacted over phone but the village Pradhan’s request did not cut the ice with the JE. He remained adamant and justified disconnection in the middle of the celebration that too in the night.
In the larger interest of the prospective brides, grooms, their parents and guests, the matter was therefore taken up at the highest level in the Electricity Department, which ultimately resulted in restoration of electricity connection and the marriage ceremony was thus concluded.
Investigation into the incident revealed the apparent reason for disconnection being failure of the concerned consumers to intimate the department about increase in connected load but it is alleged that a broken deal is at the heart of the incident, which prompted the Bambooflat site office to resort to disconnection in the middle of the function that too in the night. Since the allegations could not be verified contents of the alleged deal has not been elaborated here. However the incident did exposed the incompetence of the concerned site engineer, who is known to nurse an ego following higher officials’ intervention in the incident.