BJP members block the main entrance of JSEB headquarters, damage office furniture and jump over the entrance in Ranchi on Tuesday. Pix: Prashant Mitra

Ranchi/Jamshedpur, April 29: Irked by constant road blockades to protest against erratic supply, the Jharkhand State Electricity Board has threatened to stop power distribution in Jamshedpur and its suburbs. But that did not dither hundreds of BJP cadre from going on a rampage today at its headquarters in Ranchi over indiscriminate loadshedding for the past three days.

Around 200 BJP cadres led by MLAs Sarayu Roy and C.P. Singh stormed the JSEB premises at Dhurwa early morning, taking the officials completely by surprise, and damaged furniture and smashed windowpanes. The party also warned of protesting before the chief minister unless supply improved within the next 72 hours.

A five-member delegation, which later met JSEB secretary R.P. Sinha, called off the agitation after they were assured that things would improve. The JSEB, however, filed an FIR against the two MLAs and 100 protesters at the Dhurwa police station.

The Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti staged a protest at Albert Ekka Chowk, burnt the effigy of chief minister Madhu Koda and raised slogan against JSEB chairman Brij Mohan Verma.

Verma said that despite raising power from Patratu and Tenughat, there was a net deficit of 100-150MW every day, which led to “restricted blackouts”. “Compared to endless hours of loadshedding in Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, UP, the Jammu & Kashmir and the national capital, Jharkhand is well-off. Whilst Punjab has a deficit of 2,040MW and Maharashtra is saddled with a shortfall of 3,000MW, the net deficit here is a paltry 100-150MW,” he added.

Against a peak time demand of 800MW, Jharkhand was receiving 686MW from internal sources, DVC and from the central grid. There was still a shortfall of 120MW, which led to forced black-outs. More problems were caused due to breakdown of three DVC plants at Mejia, Bokaro and Durgapur.

Verma, however, conceded that thefts were fast eating into JSEB’s resources.

“In Ranchi, at least 40 per cent of power supplied is stolen. At Chatra, Giridih, Latehar and Chakradharpur, 70-90 per cent of power supplied by JSEB is unaccounted for. Consumers default in at least 40 per cent of bills raised by the board every month,” said Verma.

Meanwhile, stung by frequent road blockades and humiliation of JSEB staff in the hands of the public, JSEB threatened to stop distribution in Jamshedpur and its suburbs if things didn’t improve.

A visibly irked JSEB general manager A.K. Trivedi said he may have to think discontinuing power supply in Jamshedpur if people persisted with road blockades, ransacking of power board offices and insulting staff.

“We cannot tolerate humiliation of our staff. We have sought assistance from the district administration. If such act by people continues we would be forced to stop work,” he said.

Sources said the reason for anger of JSEB officials was the two recent blockades by the residents of Jugsalai and Parsudih. While the residents of the former locality blocked the busy Bistupur-Station Road on Saturday, their counterparts at Parsudih blocked the Karandih Road for hours today.

“The JSEB is supplying power in Parsudih and nearby areas for only four hours. There is a severe water crisis, too. How can we live under such conditions?” complained Manoj Choubey, a resident of Parsudih.

The JSEB officials said they were helpless as they are dependent on Central Load Despatch (CLD), which supplies power to the Gamharia and Golmuri power grid sub-stations.

“During summer both the sub-stations fail to get requisite load,” said a senior official of the board’s Jamshedpur area.