As the power crisis in Andhra Pradesh continues to worsen, doctors at a government hospital in Narsipatnam were forced to use candles and torch lights to deliver a baby.
The incident took place on April 6 at the NTR government hospital in Anakapalli district.
Several other videos emerging from the same hospital showed patients waiting at the hospital lobby in pitch darkness, including a woman struggling to breast-feed her newborn, while using paper fans and a piece of cloth to ward off mosquitoes.
“This is such a big hospital, yet there is no power back-up. The generator is not working. It’s like a gas chamber with no ventilation and plenty of mosquitoes,” a patient’s attendant told local reporters.
Patients who had turned up for general check-up were forced to return as the hospital faced power outage for nearly 10 hours.
“The situation is so bad that even doctors are helpless. Many patients have already left, only some of us are waiting here because we have nowhere else to go. This is supposed to be the best government hospital in the area,” another patient said.
According to AP Transco, Andhra Pradesh is currently facing a power deficit between 40-50 million units a day. The increase in demand can be attributed to resumption of economic activities that were earlier impacted by Covid and a 5% increase in domestic power consumption due to the rising mercury levels.
In a bid to ease domestic power supply, the Andhra Pradesh government has imposed 50% power cuts on the industrial sector till April 22. Other industries have to issue a weekly power holiday, in addition to their regular weekly offs. The state government has also directed that only 50% of air-conditioners can be used for malls and government offices. The order also says billboards and signboards cannot use power supply between 6 pm and 6 am.
While the state government has assured uninterrupted power supply to the agricultural sector, farmers are complaining of erratic and prolonged power cuts. In Rabi season, farmers sow Bengal gram, millets and groundnuts, which require continuous water supply drawn from borewells.
“Earlier, we would get free electricity for nine hours between 8 am and 5 pm, but since the past one month, we have been facing random power cuts, and get only about four hours of supply. How are we supposed to function like this,” asked Prasad Reddy, a farmer from Kurnool told News18.
Meanwhile, former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu came down heavily on the CM Jagan Reddy-led government, accusing him of pushing Andhra Pradesh “a power surplus state into darkness and blackouts”.
“What answer does Jagan have for the lactating and pregnant woman who have been left in the lurch at hospital,” he asked.
He also slammed the government for splurging Rs 233 crore public funds in the name of felicitating village volunteers.
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