Torches in the dark: Udhayanidhi slams TVK over fresh power cuts
Unscheduled outages and low voltage have pushed residents and small industries onto the streets, and the opposition says the TVK government is blaming the wind instead of fixing the grid.
For two evenings running, families in several districts have stepped out with torches and candles, not for a festival but because their homes went dark without warning. In Tirunelveli, residents of Mudaliarpatti and neighbouring villages staged a night-time protest over repeated interruptions. In Srirangam constituency, people in Ammapettai and North Ariyavur kept a road blockade going for a second day, saying complaints had brought no lasting fix.
The disruption has not stayed at the household level. Near Karur, villagers around Kadavur said cuts of four to six hours had become a routine for more than ten days. Unscheduled outages were also reported in Pudukottai and in the Rasipuram area of Namakkal. At the SIDCO Women's Industrial Park near Sengundram in Tiruvallur, executives from small units laid siege to the local electricity board office, saying frequent outages and low voltage were hitting production and wiping out margins.
Electricity Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar attributed the shortage to a disruption in wind power generation and said the problem affected several states, not Tamil Nadu alone. He said the state had bought the power it needed from the common pool and that regular supply was restored after adequate procurement on Thursday evening.
Opposition leader Udhayanidhi Stalin seized on the protests. He said people were forced to the street by continuous unscheduled cuts and voltage fluctuations, and accused the minister of making unnecessary allegations instead of taking effective measures. In a phrase that travelled quickly, he described the administration as a fuse-blown TVK government that was struggling to ensure basic services, including electricity and Aavin milk distribution. He urged the government to stop diversionary tactics and focus on everyday problems.
The exchange captures a familiar pattern in the TVK government's first months: a service failure becomes a street protest, the government offers a technical explanation, and the opposition frames it as a failure of governance. What residents want is simpler: lights that stay on, voltage that does not damage motors and refrigerators, and notice before a cut. Until the grid delivers that, the torch may remain an easier symbol than the minister's press note.