In a south Calcutta neighbourhood, police on Tuesday tried to lay down the rules to be followed when a CESC team worked, while people from several power-less pockets waited to snatch the technicians away.
In front of a building on Ashok Avenue, the officer-in-charge of Netajinagar police station was heard saying:
- Please don’t snatch away the linesmen
- Let them complete their job
- If you snatch them away, the job would remain half done and people would continue to suffer
- Please have some patience
Not that everyone was impressed, though they nodded their heads approvingly.
“We are standing here not without any reason. We have grown desperate after waiting for power for six days,” said a resident.
Subhas Adhikary, the OC, was making the announcements while a CESC team was inspecting a building on Ashok Avenue that did not have power since the Amphan struck on Wednesday.
Residents of another building were seen waiting close-by and keeping a watch on what the linesmen were doing.
Adhikary then accompanied the linesmen to another building of the area so they could carry out the primary inspection unhindered.
An officer of the police station said Adhikary was keeping the linesmen under watch to neutralise chances of residents of some other neighbourhoods snatching them away.
Barely 100m from the spot where Adhikary was making the announcement, some linesmen were detained inside a club on Sunday so that they could not be whisked away by residents of an adjoining colony.
“This detention of linesmen by residents was putting them under more stress. Our OC was only trying to ensure that the job was done in a systematic way, considering that the workforce was limited in numbers compared with the scale of damage,” said the officer.
Adhikary told Metro: “The residents have to understand that they must allow these men to work freely. They must cooperate.”
Adhikary was also heard telling residents that even if supply was restored they must use the power sparingly.