Power cuts have begun to hit people in Dhanbad and Hazaribagh among seven districts areas where the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) supplies power.

The cause of power cuts was rooted in DVC's dues worth Rs 4,995 crore from Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL).In order to put pressure, this PSU has indulged in rationing power supply to JBVNL customers in seven districts of the state.

In response, the CM Hemant Soren is learnt to have communicated to DVC saying the JBVNL will pay Rs 200 crore as soon as possible. However, the DVC has not normalized power supply causing untold miseries to people in these district areas.

In Dhanbad, residents of Jharia, Kendua, Karkend and Putki have had to go without water since Tuesday. Civic body Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada), which supplies Damodar water through its Jamadoba water treatment plant, has not been able to fill up the tanks due to repeated power cuts.

Dhanbad town, where water from the Maithon dam is supplied by the drinking water and sanitation department, also had to go without water supply.

As a result, shop keepers and businessmen have to keep operating the generators continuously and incur extra expenditure.“Water was supplied for only half an hour in Jharia on Wednesday. Today, we didn’t receive even a drop.”

Some members of the district unit of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Yuva Sangharsh Morcha burnt the effigies of JBVNL and DVC at Randhir Verma Chowk in Dhanbad to mark their outrage over the outage.

Hazaribagh deputy mayor Rajkumar Lal on Thursday led a team of councilors to the DVC office in the town and threatened officials of action if the situation did not improve

The JMM’s Tundi MLA Mathura Mahto alleged that the DVC was creating problems for Jharkhand residents at the behest of the central government.

“The DVC didn’t have a problem with the Raghubar Das government, which misused the state exchequer but did not pay the electricity dues. Now, the DVC is creating trouble for the current dispensation,” he said.

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