Daily power-cuts affecting students, sick people

Sunita Karki, a class 10 student of Radheradhe Sangam Colony, Madhyapur Thimi Municipality-5, is currently under a lot of stress as she is unable to take online classes due to daily power outage. She is busy preparing for the upcoming SEE exam.

Not only that, but nowadays, when the daily power supply is cut off due to load shedding, thousands of students attending online classes who have contracted coronavirus and even patients in home isolation have been affected. Sunita says, "Unbeknownst to me, whenever the lights go out daily, I get hit hard while doing online classes. Sir also scolds me. Not only me, my siblings and friends have the same problem. Shouldn't the Electricity Authority take responsibility for the lights going out?"

Sunita is only a single example. At present, not only in Madhyapur thimi Radheradhe area but also in different areas of Bhaktapur, many people are facing problems when the Electricity Authority cuts off power supply for one to four hours daily citing maintenance.

Nar Bahadur Thapa, 74, of Kamerotar, Madhyapur thimi Municipality-9, who is living in home isolation, has the same problem. After having to take oxygen daily, the family has brought the oxygen concentrator at home. But he complains that he can't even get oxygen when the lights go out for hours every day.

Thapa's son Gokul Thapa said, "As there was a problem in carrying oxygen cylinder daily, I paid Rs 100,000 and brought oxygen concentrator machine and started giving oxygen to my father at home. During the day, NEA cuts off the lights in the name of line maintenance, but consumers are confused why the lights go out for 15-20 minutes daily at night. Consumers have been frustrated after the lights went out daily in the evening in some areas of the district.

Manju Neupane of Suryabinayak Municipality-2, Balkot, said, "The government tells us to cook food in the induction oven but the Electricity Authority cuts off the lights. Even the employees of the Electricity Authority have been suffering." An employee of Electricity Authority said, "We don't cut the lights at night. The transmitter can't support the load when the light consumption is high. The lights go out. It takes half an hour to identify the problem. It's not easy. Customers don't understand this, sometimes they abuse on the phone.”

Rohini Poudel, head of the Nepal Electricity Authority's Thimi branch, said that the power supply had to be cut off in the afternoon when they went to repair the problem. She said that the problem arose at night as he could not bear the load. She said, "The transmitter could not support the load due to high consumption at one time. Chief Poudel said, "Consumers started complaining a lot after the lights went out. At night, a lot of electricity is consumed at once. The transmitter does not support the load.” She said they would take initiative to replace the transmitters.

According to the NEA staff, the consumption of electricity has also increased as the number of settlements has increased in each area but the NEA has not increased the capacity of the transmitter. "Transmitters from 20 years ago are still in operation. Additional capacity transmitters should be installed where there is a problem and where demand is high, but the center has not paid attention to that."