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Time of India

City on short fuse over power cuts: BJP, SAD leaders

Ludhiana: With power cuts disrupting life in the city, leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) attacked the ruling party for failing to tackle the problem. They said that the entire city, including poll-bound west constituency, faced the problem of power cuts. In a few areas, the power cuts were 10 to 12 hours long, the leaders said, adding that the AAP government and Powercom had been exposed. Senior BJP leader and west constituency in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna held a press conference on the issue at the BJP election office in Khanna on Saturday. Addressing mediapersons, Khanna said, "Being in-charge of this constituency, I meet people daily, and they have serious problems due to power cuts." He added that residents of areas like Sarabha Nagar, Rajguru Nagar, Rishi Nagar, Sunet, and SBS Nagar, which fall under the west constituency, endure 10 to 12 hours of power cuts. In certain constituencies, there were 18-hour long power cuts as well, he said. Khanna questioned AAP candidate, Sanjeev Arora, saying, "The AAP candidate claims that he is like a second CM and any work can be done in the city on his direction but to date, he has never raised this issue and responded to people about government's failure to fulfill its promise of providing 24/7 electricity supply." He said that the Powercom department did not have adequate staff to check infrastructure-related complaints and even lines needed replacement. Elaborating on issues faced by the industry, Khanna said, "The industry was promised power supply at Rs 5 per unit, but they still are getting it at Rs 9 to Rs 10 per unit. Even then, there are power cuts for a long duration. Now, when there is no power supply, they are using generators and extra money is being spent on diesel. " Meanwhile, SAD candidate, Parupkar Singh Ghumman, also attacked the ruling party for creating problems due to power cuts. "I also live in the west constituency and I can feel the pain of people living here and in other areas. If the poll-bound west constituency is not getting uninterrupted power supply, what can be expected in other areas?" He said. Ghumman pointed out that regular power cuts had precipitated a water crisis as well as MC tubewells would not work. He said that during a meeting with residents at Professor Colony, he found that people at the end of their tether because of the power cuts that they staged a protest at night. MSID:: 121848140 413 | Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here . Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171 .