Power Shut Down regularized

Dr. Valluvan, practicing dermatologist in Virudhachalam was having difficulty due to power shut off between 10 am till noon daily. Usually there is a rotation in the time slot every week for power shutoff. But in his neighborhood the power was cut off everyday at the same time for several weeks. He filed an RTI petition, on 24th August 2009, asking the Divisional Engineer of Tamilnadu Electricity Board the reason behind the department to shutoff power at the same time, and the criteria to have chosen that particular time slot. He received a reply from the TNEB, on 27th August 2009, but the answer was not explanatory for the questions raised by the applicant. So he filed an appeal and said that if he does not get a satisfactory explanation, he would be filing a suit at the Cuddalore District Customer court. At the end of all this, the power shutoff was changed to a convenient time slot of 12noon to 2pm. The residents were happy and this victory against the bureaucrats was published in the local newspaper.