BSES office ransacked, Sonia pulls up Delhi CM

New Delhi: Oppressive heat coupled with lack of rains is making life tough for the resident of Delhi. As demand for electricity keeps on rising, authorities have resorted to power cuts across the city.

But now the anger is spilling on to the streets with residents of the National Capital protest against massive power cuts.

A group of agitators ransacked a BSES office in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar following power cuts in the area.

The protestors also blocked roads near Vikas Marg and burnt some tyres.

They then proceeded to Delhi Finance Minister AK Walia's house and surrounded it to protest against power cut in the area. Walia expressed helplessness at the prevailing power, blaming the power companies for not doing their job.

Residents of many areas of south-east Delhi were also on the streets on Saturday protesting poor water supply.

The road leading to Batra Hospital was completely blocked for hours on Saturday by angry crowds.

Police had to lathicharge the protesters to disperse the crowd and control the situation. Two protesters were injured in the scuffle and were taken to AIIMS.

The protesters complained that there has been no water supplied to their area for the past 20 days. The protesters also alleged that some areas were supplied water after they used political clout.

With most of the northern states overdrawing from Northern Grid, officials claimed Delhi is also faced with the situation of under frequency, which is forcing the discoms to resort to load-shedding in various parts of the city.

Earlier, on Wednesday residents of Sangam Vihar had taken to the streets in protest and police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the crowd.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was reportedly pulled up by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday for the power situation in the Capital. Sheila Dikshit is said to have explained that the crisis in Delhi could easily be worked out.

However, Delhi Congress President J P Agarwal contradicted Sheila Dikshit, saying that the situation was indeed grim and even warned that it could get worse.

Agarwal, who is also an MP from North-east Delhi, said, "It is unfortunate that there are so many power cuts. The government should have had a contingency plan in place."

Sheila Dikshit later denied having received any such call.