Around 10 families in Ranikuthi have been struggling without electricity since Cyclone Amphan ravaged the city a week ago.
On Monday, supply was restored to most of their neighbours’ houses but not to their homes.
A mother and a daughter, who have been surviving on dry food, restricted use of mobile phone and candles over the past six days, has even got a message from CESC that their problem had been resolved.
Sayari De, 37, an architect, had switched off her mobile phone on May 20 — the day the storm struck — and had since been periodically switching it on to check messages and make necessary calls.
From Monday, a “task” has been added to her daily schedule — to stand in front of the gate of a building across the road from theirs and get her phone battery charged in the common area.
She goes there every day wearing a mask and tries to maintain as little contact with her surroundings as possible because back home there is hardly enough water for a thorough cleaning.
“I don’t know why haven’t they restored power supply on this side of the road. We started lighting LED candles initially but they did not survive a day. Now, we are on wax candles,” Sayari told Metro over the phone on Tuesday.
Sayari and her 67-year-old mother Sunanda live on the second floor of a building that has three more families.
With their electricity snapped for over 140 hours, they have modified their schedule in a way they never thought they would have to.
“We are having very early dinner and retiring by 7.30pm. We cannot store any food in the refrigerator, so we are eating only dry food. But the worst part is there is no ice at home for my mother’s knee therapy. The therapy has completely stopped,” Sayari said.
They are spending Rs 600 every day on hiring a generator for half an hour to fill the overhead water tank. For drinking water, the family had stocked mineral water bottles.
“During the cyclone, I had seen sparks from the transformer that supplies power to our building. I do not know if switching off supply to the transformer could have helped us. But now the cables are burned,” she said.
Sayari lodged a complaint with CESC through an app and received a docket number. She received a message from the power utility on Monday saying the matter had been “successfully resolved”.
Hundreds of people have been protesting on roads in Jadavpur and Ranikuthi demanding restoration of the power. Sayari is against such protests.
More than doing any good, the protests are disrupting the restoration work, she said. “But I expect some honest communication on the situation,” she said.
The CESC spokesperson said: “This may not be technical glitch. We will have to look into the individual case.... But in general, there are times that the supply of the entire area is kept off and people think it’s a glitch and lodge a complaint. After power supply is turned on, customers are called up individually to ask whether power has been restored. If there is no response, we cannot keep the matter unresolved and the case is closed automatically.”