This Summer in India seems to have already left a scar on the minds of people for its terrible heat and uncontrollable power crisis. While weather gods seem to show no mercy, political parties are busy playing politics over the already heated matter. Combating the extreme heat wave in India and enraged by the power crisis, thousands of people rioted across Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, set electricity substations on fire and took power company officials hostage.
People ransacked offices and took several workers hostage for 18 hours until police intervened. An angry crowd set fire to an electricity substation in Gonda. It took three hours for firefighters to put out the flames on Friday. Another substation was set on fire in Gorakhpur.
An acute power crisis continues in Uttar Pradesh with the state without power for the fifth day in a row. Friday remained the hottest in Uttar Pradesh as the mercury touched 47⁰C in the capital city Lucknow, while Allahabad in the state observed an all-time high maximum temperature of 48.3⁰C.
The daily power supply in many villages of Uttar Pradesh is only for about two-three hours, while the towns are getting 10-12 hour power supply. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akilesh Yadav said officials were trying to purchase power from other states, though they were also facing shortages amid the intense heat.
Meanqhile, extreme heat wave conditions continue to prevail in the capital city Delhi too with the mercury climbing steadily to 47⁰C at the Palam Observatory. According to a Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) official, the highest ever consumption of power in Delhi on a single day is 2nd July 2012 when it reached a high of 107.365. So there is every chance that this record could be broken soon. On the 30th of May the power demand in Delhi reached a new high of 100.897 million units due to a record temperature of 46°C.
Weathermen at Skymet say Delhi and adjoining states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan could get a slight relief from the heat as the mercury could drop by a degree or two in the next 72 hours, followed by some dust storm activity on the 13th of June. Monsoon will advance to North and Central India only towards the end of June.
