Youth Cong stages 'sleep protest' at KSEB office over alleged unannounced power cuts in Kollam

KOLLAM: Youth Congress activists staged an unusual protest by laying mats and sleeping at the KSEB office in Olayil here against alleged unannounced power cuts in the area.

More than 10 Youth Congress activists reached the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) office premises on Sunday night, carrying torches made from burning dried leaves and laying out mats, as part of the protest.

The protesters alleged that the only place where the electricity supply remains uninterrupted is the KSEB offices and, in light of this, decided to sleep there to avoid power cuts during the night.

They alleged that children and elderly people are being affected by unannounced power cuts, despite the LDF government, during the recently held assembly election, claiming it had completely ended load-shedding in the state.

Later, police officials arrived at the office, met with Youth Congress leaders, and removed the protesters from the premises.

On Saturday, the Youth Congress held a similar protest in Palakkad.

Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty and the KSEB maintain there is no load shedding in the state, even as the board faces a severe power shortage.

They have attributed the recent outages to temporary overload due to high electricity consumption.

The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) recently granted permission to the KSEB to purchase 250 MW of power per day until May 15, following the board's request for approval.

On April 17, the state’s daily electricity consumption reached 116.11 million units, the highest recorded so far this month. Peak power demand on the same day touched 6,013 MW, marking an all-time high in the state’s history.