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India feels the heat as thousands riot over power cuts

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 5th, 2008

Lights out, er, on?

Thousands of people, many wearing only underwear, rioted across northern India yesterday over power cuts that have left millions without electricity or water, highlighting the yawning gap between the country’s superpower aspirations and realities on the ground.

The violence underlined growing public frustration at the Government’s failure to improve the basic infrastructure, especially electricity and water supplies, despite an unprecedented economic boom.

The Government has pledged to provide “power for all” by 2012, but analysts say that it will struggle to keep up with demand as the middle class sates its appetite for electronic goods and larger homes.

While India’s economy has grown at an average of 8 per cent for the past four years, enriching a consumer class of 50-60 million people, half of the billion-plus population are not even connected to the electricity network. Those who are rely on voltage stabilisers, inverters (large batteries) and diesel-powered generators. The power minister in Uttar Pradesh predicted that the energy crisis would last for at least two more years.

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