Residents protest erratic power supply in Odisha's Lathor

BALANGIR: Business establishments in Lathor of Patnagarh sub-division in the district remained shut on Wednesday as a mark of protest against unannounced power cuts. People from different walks of life marched across the town and sat in dharna in front of Lathor college demanding uninterrupted power supply.

"Undeclared power cut is the norm now which has affected us badly," said Hari Sahu, a local resident. Particularly people running pathology labs were voicing their concern at the protest rally. "Our businesses have been incurring losses due to unscheduled power cuts," Mitrabhanu, a pathology lab owner, said.

Same is the situation of X-ray, photocopy shops, DTP centres, grinding units etc. To further worsen the situation, power cables hanging low and jumbled up have also been a cause of concern for the businessmen.

"We cannot get the carriers to deliver goods at our shops directly due to low lying cables," said a cement store-owner. Refuting the complaints, electrical SDO of Balangir Udayabhanu Nandi said, "There are no unreasonable power outages. In case of emergencies, we disconnect electric supply with announcement."