Pune residents take to streets

On Wednesday evening, residents of housing societies on Salunkhe Vihar and NIBM Road took to the streets to protest the delay by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) in restoring power supply that had been disrupted for 24 hours.

The heavy rain on Tuesday badly damaged electricity poles, with conductors and electricity feeders of individual housing societies going under water. In order to prevent any accident, the MSEB was forced to cut off the main power supply.

"More than 40 trees fell in Kondhwa, Salunkhe Vihar and NIBM Road areas. This led to heavy damage of conductors and electricity poles. This kind of situation was never seen before and the entire local team of the MSEB immediately set to work. But the problem was immense in magnitude and hundreds of buildings went without power for 24 hours," said an MSEB official spokesperson.

Power supply was restored by 8 pm on Wednesday evening.
Besides these areas, around 30 residential societies in Bavdhan area — among them Aditya Shagun, Prabhat Society, Ramnagar Society, Tirupati Society, Omkar Society and Shree Apartments — faced a blackout due to rain.

Rasik Gujar, a senior citizen who lives along with his wife Rekha at Aditya Shagun in Bavdhan, told DNA, "From 5 pm on Tuesday the power supply went off and it was restored after almost 24 hours on Wednesday. It is for the first time that it took so long for the power supply to come back," he said, adding that they did not have water supply too as the water pump of society did not work.

Besides these areas, parts of Kothrud, Warje, Deccan, Vedbhavan and Gandhi Bhavan also did not have power supply for more than 12 hours.

Shilpa Sonaware, a resident of Shrawasti building in Salunkhe Vihar, said that despite making 100 calls to helpline, MSEB officials did not give satisfactory reply and were rude. "We don't have water at home as the water pump didn't work in the absence of electricity. Many of our kids are writing exams and need to study," she said.

Meeta Burman, a resident of Glory Palace Apartments near ABC Farms in Salunkhe Vihar, complained of her asthmatic mother not taking nebulisation because of power failure. "Now she has taken ill and my daughter can't study for exams. The last 24 hours were really tough for us," she said.