Excelsior Correspondent
AKHNOOR, Aug 14: Residents of Devipur Panchayat, near here, led by Sarpanch Ganesh Dass staged a protest demonstration and burnt tires besides blocking Devipur road for two hours.
They raised slogans against PDD department and claimed that from last some months they are facing unscheduled long power cuts.
One protester, Ajay Kumar told reporters that since last three months the residents of Devipur Panchayat including village Batla and Naiwala are facing power crisis.
He said that they approached the concerned authorities many times but no heed was paid to their grievances.
Another protester Sanjeev Kumar while addressing the media said due to restrictions because of COVID pandemic, education of students is going online but due to long unscheduled power cuts their mobile phones also remains uncharged and education of the students gets affected due to this.
He said that most residents of Devipur are dependent on farming which in turn is dependent on irrigation lift system but due to power cuts their farming is also suffering.
Another protester Sagar Hans alleged that employees of PDD in the area are very irresponsible and rarely attend the phones of locals and public representatives.
Sarpanch Ganesh Dass said they had approached the PDD officials but were given lame excuses of shortage of manpower and infrastructure in the area.
He gave an ultimatum of one week to PDD authorities to improve the power supply in the area else they will gherao PDD office at Akhnoor.
The protesters also demanded that their feeders should be separated from that of Balle Da Bagh.
Prominent among protesters were Sunil Verma, Surinder Kumar, Naresh Bhagat, Aman Bhagat, Gyan Chand, Sakendya Devi, Rita Devi, Sunita Kumari, Gudawri Devi, Reetu Devi and others.