Power cuts to get one week notice

BANGALORE: In what might bring some relief to the power consumers of the city, the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) will soon start displaying its load shedding plan a week in advance on its website.BESCOM accepted the decision during the hearing of Blanket Shutdown notice that is being challenged by Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) and Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA).Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), Chairman, M R Sreenivasa Murthy observed, “BESCOM must notify the consumers in advance. They can display the information on their website.” “Any power interruption affects, everyone. Housewives, students, professional and others, their daily plans gets affected, if there is no proper communication of loadshedding details,” he added.The BESCOM representatives accepted the order of the KERC chairman and said that it would be done soon. Murthy, however, also asked the BESCOM officials to submit a detailed plan of action on how the utility is planning to communicate its load shedding details.FKCCI and KASSIA members have filed a petition against BESCOM based on the letter that was circulated among the industries for “threatening” to introduce loadshedding, if it didn’t fall in line as per the BESCOM directive.Arguing the matter, FKCCI council, advocate Shridhar Prabhu said that the letter by BESCOM was an attempt to commit an offence and must be dealt sternly. The Commission also observed that letter addressed to the industries suggested blanket shutdown.“The contention here is that the letter proposed to take up blanket shutdown.However, the BESCOM does not have the power to propose any such thing without the consent of the commission,” Murthy said.K E R C , member,Vishwanath Hiremath observed, “The primary duty of the BESCOM is supply quality electricity and it is also its duty to provide it at all cost to all the consumers.” The argument of the case that went on till late in the evening has now been posted for hearing for June 30.