HEAT WAVE THROWS LIFE OUT OF GEAR IN BHOJPUR DISTRICT SCHOOLS CLOSED TILL JUNE 24, 2023

Ara, 18 June 2023, (RNI): Soaring mercury with each passing day coupled with acute power and water crisis has made the living conditions a living nightmare for the people of Bhojpur district. Sleepless nights and restless days are being spent. Thanks to the erratic power supply particularly in the night hour for the last one month.

Blistering heat and heat wave hit Bhojpur district for the last one fortnight and the entire Ara town wore deserted look since 8 in the morning and people prefer to confine themselves inside their houses. Westerly wind is blowing at a speed of 30 to 40 kilometer per hour compelling the people and even the animals to take shelter under the shadow of trees. Besides they are also facing problems for want of drinking water as most of the hand pumps have gone dry though the district administration had launched campaign to repair them.  

In addition of this, frequent breakdowns of power supply during the remaining period despite the local BJP MP R K Singh is union energy minister and always make tall claims that the Bhojpur district will not face power crisis during the summer and for this the South Bihar Power Distribution Private Limited cut power for long power almost every fortnight in the name of maintenance to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The situation is worsening with each passing day but the officials of the electricity department claim an improvement in the situation.

Educational institutions, domestic consumers, commercial establishments and hospitals have been hard hit by the power crisis.

The entire market area becomes deserted early in the evening causing considerable loss to businessmen. Owing to the persistent power crisis, tubewells and flour mills have become virtually defunct and many small scale units facing closure. This may render many workers jobless.

The power crisis adversely affected the agriculture work in the district. Ill-fated farmers are compelled to operate their machines with the help of generator sets.

Resentment prevails among the power consumers against the officials of the electricity department for their partial views in power supply. Residents of Ara town have been supplied power through five feeders but the consumers of feeder nos.3, 4, 5 are meted out step motherly treatment on one pretext or another and they are contemplating agitation. The consumers blamed that the officials of electricity department supply power at least 18 to 20 hours in the VIP consumers.

When contacted, the Executive Engineer, South Bihar Power Distribution Private Limited said that Bhojpur district need 100 MW a day and the district has no scarcity of power but due to high temperature and heat wave, the systems develop fault and it is the cause of erratic power supply.

Again farmers of Bhojpur district are at their wit’s end due to the gloomy prospect of standing paddy seedlings which have now started withering in the absence of rain. Seedlings are at the germination stage and a good amount of water is required for their transplantation.

However, owing to scanty rainfall and in the absence of proper irrigation facilities, farmers of Bhojpur district are depending on a good spell of rain for a good paddy crops. They have little hope from defunct state tubewells and borings. The spectre of drought looms large over Bhojpur district and the situation will go from bad to worse if district does not have heavy rainfall in the next few days. The district agriculture officer, Bhojpur, said paddy transplantation has to be done at 1,15000 hectare of land and a good rainfall was needed for better prospect of paddy crops and if the dry spell persisted for a week or more, it will cause extensive damage to the seedlings. He said Bhojpur is expected to receive 1000mm of rainfall but has received no rainl so far.

Executive Engineer, Sone Canal, Ara division, Sukhdeo Ram said almost all the handpumps are out of order and the canals are dry. At present only 125 out of 514 state tubewells are working. Several tubewells are non-functional owing to burnt transformers, erratic power supply and poor maintenance. Lack of coordination among district administration officials, agriculture department and the electricity department is stated to be the reason behind the non-repair of tubewells.

Meanwhile, Bhojpur district administration closed all the private and government schools from Primary level to +12 level in Bhojpur district till June 24, 2023 in view of heat wave.

Bhojpur District Magistrate Raj Kumar issued order in this regard and Headmasters of all the schools implement this order. The DM ordered the District Education Officer to ensure implementation of the order otherwise action would be taken against the recalcitrant under section 51-60 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 and also under section 188 IPC.