Karimganj electricity crisis, protestors burnt CM Sarbananda Sonowal's effigy

Members of different organisations, along with residents of a number of villages in Karimganj district, on Thursday, shut off the gate of Nilambazar sub-divisional office (electricity department) and burnt the effigy of Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in protest against power-outage in several villages in Karimganj South constituency over the past 48 hours.

More than 300 people comprising the members of Karimganj district NSUI, Barak NGO and Rural Development Organisation among others, along with residents of some villages, converged in front of the Nilambazar sub-divisional office, around 80km from Silchar, around 11am this morning and shut off the main gate around 12:30pm after they found the sub-divisional engineer had not reach office by then.

Thereafter, the agitated residents blocked the National Highway-8 (Assam-Tripura road) and burnt the effigy of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal venting their ire over the power-outage in the areas for the past couple of days.

NSUI district president Ismail Hossain, Barak NGO president M. Miya and Rural Development Organisation president F. Rahman Tapadar said nearly 500 villages under the electricity division (Nilambazar division) had been suffering because of erratic power supply for the past few months, and the troubles have aggravated like never before in the past two days, they said.

They alleged that there had been around just 10 hours of power supply in the last 48 hours resulting in immense trouble for residents. Though they tried to contact the electricity office in this regard, but they were never entertained, they rued.

The residents said the problem of power outage has worsened after the sub-divisional engineer Kallol Debroy joined and alleged that Debroy had been neglecting his duties. They strongly demanded his suspension and threatened of further protests if the matter is not resolved soon.

Sources said the affected villages include Nilambazar, Suprakandi, Gandhai and Balia among others.

Sharing his reaction, Kallol Debroy said the Nilambazar electricity division is not getting enough supply for which the problem is happening in some villages. Necessary steps will soon be taken to resolve the issue, he said.

Karimganj South legislator Aziz Ahmed Khan said he would speak to the authorities concerned and steps would be taken so that the matter is solved soon.