Chennai:
The family of a Chennai journalist has blamed a power cut for the death of their 41-year-old son, who died at the Intensive Care Unit of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. Ponmurugan, the Editor a Tamil magazine was on ventilator support after a road accident. His father Ramaswamy says "the power supply snapped around 5 AM on Monday; the ventilator turned off, pulse dropped and he died".
Soon the family of another patient who died too blamed the inadequate power back up in the hospital.
Hospital authorities however deny the allegation. They claim there was merely a power fluctuation for five minutes and not a power cut. Speaking to NDTV, the Dean of the Madras Medical College, Dr Vimala added "Ventilators have a two hour power back up besides manual resuscitators and all our generators are functional. The journalist had suffered severe injuries, blood clot besides other complications, his death was not due to any power problem."
Presently Tamil Nadu faces a power shortage of around 1500 MW. Over the last few years the deficit had touched around 3000 MW and rural Tamil Nadu witnessed power cuts up to 14 hours a day. In Coimbatore, the industrial hub, hundreds of units shut shop due to the crippling power crisis. In the run up to the ongoing parliamentary election, the DMK made the power crisis a big poll issue. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa however blamed the earlier DMK regime for the mess and claimed she has enhanced power generation and has brought down the deficit.
Though the power situation had tuned better over the last few months, particularly during the election campaign season, after polls many areas witness unannounced power cuts. One Chennai resident told NDTV, "This is how both the DMK and AIADMK cheat people. They spend all the money for freebies and no money for development." Another worried resident said "Peak summer is approaching. We don't know what's in store for us. People in rural Tamil Nadu are the worst-hit".
However authorities in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board told NDTV "with showers over the last few days the power consumption has come down and we have already reduced power cuts to a minimum. A few new plants have been commissioned and with others nearing completion situation would soon change."