Power outages disrupt TN ministers' events a day after CM Vijay's TNPDCL review

MADURANTAKAM/DHARAPURAM: In a major embarrassment for the state government, power cuts disrupted successive meetings chaired by ministers on Thursday, just a day after Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay inspected the Electricity Board headquarters.

Vijay conducted a review at the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TNPDCL) head office in Chennai on September 23, following severe electricity deficit issues. However, the very next day, outages plagued official events across the state.

In Maduranthakam, a power cut halted the speech of Minister Aadhav Arjuna. A video showing the minister instructing officials to "put on the generator," as the microphone got cutoff during his address, is being circulated online.

A similar disruption occurred in Dharapuram. Electricity failed while Minister K A Sengottaiyan was speaking at a consultative meeting. Notably, this was the second such interruption for both Sengottaiyan and Arjuna, who previously too faced blackouts in the middle of their speech.

The bypolls in Maduranthakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies will be held on October 6.