TVK minister's explosive allegation: Some power cuts caused by sabotage

CHENNAI: Repeated power disruptions in a few locations were not solely due to technical failures, Minister for Electricity Resources R Nirmalkumar said on Monday, alleging that CCTV footage had revealed instances of unidentified persons removing fuses and tampering with electrical infrastructure in Avadi. He said officials had been instructed to lodge police complaints and that evidence would be handed over to law enforcement authorities.

Addressing reporters, the Minister said electricity board officials had noticed a recurring pattern of outages in certain areas. Upon examining CCTV footage, they found that some individuals had allegedly interfered with power infrastructure, leading to repeated disruptions.

Action would be initiated against those responsible, he said, adding that after the FIR is filed, the video footage would be made public.

At the same time, Nirmalkumar acknowledged that ageing infrastructure was a major challenge. More than 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the state's transformers were over 20 years old and were therefore susceptible to faults. Several substations were also struggling to handle increasing electricity loads, resulting in low-voltage problems and supply interruptions in some areas, he said.

Referring to recent outages, he said special teams had been deployed across the state to respond to complaints and restore supply at the earliest. In some localities, transformer and fuse-related faults had been rectified within 40 minutes, he added.

The Minister said civic authorities had already been advised to impose stringent penalties on contractors and agencies that damaged underground power cables while carrying out excavation works. Such incidents were contributing to disruptions in urban areas, particularly in Chennai, he noted.

Stressing that the government was pursuing long-term solutions, the Minister said pending substation projects and infrastructure upgrades were being expedited. Budgetary provisions were also being planned to strengthen the distribution network and improve the reliability of the power supply.

On manpower shortages, he said the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board was facing a shortage of around 70,000 employees. The government was preparing proposals to recruit at least 15,000 personnel this year, subject to approval, and recruitment to field-level posts would also be taken up in phases.

The Minister further said the government had recently granted promotions to 300 employees, many of whom had been waiting for more than 15 years. Similar pending promotion issues in other cadres were also being examined and addressed, he added.