Woes aplenty as load-shedding refuses to go down
After indirectly becoming a cause for few unexpected deaths and loss of
properties worth millions of rupees, the excruciating 16-hour long daily
power cuts, invariably called "load-shedding", has now been blamed for the
damage caused to a historic temple in the capital city.
On Sunday night, many historical artifacts of archeological importance
were burnt to cinders in a fire incident in the famous Bangalamukhi temple
that is close by Patan's Durbar Square Area, which appears in the list of
World Heritage sites.
Reports quoted police as saying that the fire in the temple was caused by
a short circuit that occurred at 12 in the midnight after power was
resumed in the area.
Initial investigations have shown that an estimated 5 million worth of
temple artifacts were destroyed in the fire incident.
However, architectural experts are still gauging the amount of damage
caused to the temple building by the fire.
Some time ago a family consisting of a father, mother and their infant
baby were found choked to death in their rented apartment in Kathmandu.
Apparently, they had not properly doused the coal they had burnt to keep
themselves warm in the cold and dark nights of the winter.
Similarly, few weeks ago, an elderly lady was burnt to death after her
clothes caught fire from candles she had lit in her house during
load-shedding hours in the evening.
There are also many reports of house catching fire due to unattended
candles that were lit during the load-shedding hours in the capital and
elsewhere in the country. Properties worth millions of rupees have been
destroyed in such fire incidents.
School and college-going students have also been hit hard by the long
hours of darkness as they complain of being unable to prepare for their
exams due to load-shedding.
As one after another offices, businesses and factories are closing down or
scaling down their production, the prolonged hours of power cuts is
clearly also having a dire effect on the nation's already flagging
economy.
Although the Ministry of Water Resources and the Nepal Electricity
Authority have from the past one month repeatedly promised that the power
cuts will soon be reduced, the consumers have not got any respite from the
excruciating power cuts.
India had last week pledged to install Dhalkebar-Mujaffarpur electricity
grid so as to ease the import of electricity from India, but there has
been no progress in this regard.
However, a report that appeared in Kantipur daily some time ago suggested
that the 16 hours of power cuts is having a curious effect on the
reproductive capacity of Nepalese people.
According to the report, the increased load-shedding hours is set to cause
the population load of the country to grow sharply in the next few years
times, as married couples become more free (office, businesses closing
early due to power cuts) and have nothing better to do to while away their
time in the darkness other than enjoying intimate moments with each other.
nepalnews.com ag Mar 16 09
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