The Teok unit of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Tuesday locked the office of the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) at Teok in Jorhat district in protest against frequent and prolonged outages for the past two months.
The AASU activists also staged a dharna in front of the APDCL office.
A resident of Teok said that there was no power in Teok from 8.30 last night till 9.30 am on Tuesday.
The lock out of the office by AASU members with the help of local people took place from 9 am to 11.30 am.
The office was allowed to be opened after the APDCL assistant executive officer Dilip Rajkhowa gave it in writing that the power would be supplied regularly and that within two days the problem would be resolved.
Teok revenue circle officer Bhaskarjyoti Rajbongshi and Bhaskar Gogoi, an official of the company were also present.
The AASU unit of Teok has further threatened to intensify their agitation if power supply is disrupted so frequently and for the long periods of time especially when the temperatures are soaring.
A resident said that when Sarbananda Sonowal had taken over as chief minister of the state, he had promised 24 hours power, but if this is the 24 hours service then God help us.
Another resident had said that small businesses like photocopying shops, eateries and computer centres are facing huge losses and there was a livelihood for these people because of such long periods of power failures.
In Jorhat too the situation is not much better with daily two hours of loadshedding and in some areas for one or two weeks there are five to six hours of outages ” due to replacement of cables,” ” shifting of poles,” .