Irate residents of Madhya Kamarpara, a village under the Balurghat block of South Dinajpur district, staged a road blockade on NH512 for almost an hour on Saturday, protesting against a prolonged power outage that disrupted life in the area for the entire past week.

According to them, severe storms and heavy rainfall a week ago damaged electric poles, snapped power lines and rendered the village transformer inoperative.

Despite repeated complaints to the West Bengal Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL), no solution was provided. The entire village stayed without any power supply for seven days.

“We informed the power department in Balurghat several times, but nothing happened. We were left with no option but to block the highway,” said Chandan Mardi, a villager who joined the protest.

Protesters said that the prolonged outage caused immense hardship for villagers, particularly children, students and elderly residents, who struggled to cope with the intense summer heat and the lack of basic services.

On Saturday, a section of residents — mostly belonging to the tribal community — blocked NH512 near Kamarpara by placing bamboo poles and barricades across the road around 10am.

The protest brought traffic on the Balurghat-Hili route to a complete standstill, with hundreds of vehicles stranded on both sides of the highway.

As the news spread, a team from the Balurghat police station went to the spot and spoke with protesters and the administration. Eventually, around 11am, the blockade was withdrawn as officials from WBSEDCL met protesters and assured them that repairs would be taken to restore power.

Soon after the protest ended, workers of WBSEDCL arrived in the area with new poles, wires and a replacement transformer and began repair work.

“The damaged transformer will be replaced, and power supply will resume shortly,” said Souvik Sarkar, a regional manager of the WBSEDCL posted in Balurghat.