CHENNAI: Accusing the TVK of plunging Tamil Nadu into darkness within a month of assuming office, former electricity minister V Senthil Balaji on Sunday demanded the government to take “wartime measures” to end the ongoing power cuts instead of “churning out content for Instagram influencers”.
In a statement, the DMK MLA said the party that came to power promising change has instead delivered only disappointment. “The TVK government has betrayed the very people who voted for it within one month of taking office,” he alleged. He added that residents in several parts of the state are facing power cuts lasting between six and 12 hours, forcing them to stage road blockades at night.
Balaji said Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, known for delivering “punch dialogues”, has now gone silent on the issue. He also accused Electricity Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar of putting forward a “new conspiracy theory” to deflect attention from the government’s administrative failures.
Questioning the minister’s explanation that the theft of fuse carriers and missing hard disks had contributed to the power disruptions, the DMK leader asked, “How can a theft that occurs during the day be blamed for power cuts at night? Is the entire power distribution network dependent on a single fuse carrier?”
Referring to the theft of hard disks, he said, “The police themselves have found that the devices contained no crucial information. What is the connection between a hard disk theft and power cuts?”