The Electricity crises in Jomotsangkha

INTRODUCTION

I don't exactly remember when Jomotsangkhag got it electric supply for the first time. My parents and relatives, when asked, say that it was there before I was born. And I was born in 1990. Therefore, electricity supply in Jomotsangkha must have come sometime in 1988 or so. However, as unreliable as it was then, the supply was from Assam, India. Because it was regulated by the people in Assam, the power outage would occur any time of the day or night. When required badly, there would be an outage. And even today the situation is no different, although the connection from Bhutan has already been done. 

FREQUENT OUTAGE

Having been born and Brought up in Jomotsangkha, erstwhile Daifam, a place in the extreme East, attention from the policy makers seem to be negligible, or minimum, if at all.  Perhaps, because Daifam has just around 8899 population, with just 1202 households, BPC might not have shown its keenness in solving the ever linger issue. Also, adding to the never-getting solved issue as this, could be the location of Jomotsangkha from Bhutan side. I am sure it would cost BPC a huge amount, taking the heavy power transmission lines from Samdrup Choling side. I have every now and been hearing people complain of erratic power supply and frequent outage. As per the medical coverage on the outage following are the times there was power outage. And the response BPC personnel gave in all the time was the same: accessibility issue due to thick vegetation, swollen river and continuous rainfall or lightening strike, gusty wind etc. 

The  power supply to daifam, as per the information shared by BPC on its website, Jomotsangkha's line  is a 33 KV emanating from 132/33 KV substation in bhangtar on  total distance  of 260 KM with 175 Transformers in between. Since Jomotsangkha Dungkhag consisting of Langchenphu, Serthi and Lauri Gewogs,  received power supply from Bhutan, sometime in 2014 end since then there have been so many complaints of outages as follows:

On 10th October 2015, a media coverage  by the Kuensel titled: "Lauri and Serthi still in the dark", it was reported that there was no power supply for more than a month. It furthers states that in the same year, Serthi was without electricity in April and Lauri February. 

On 24th  June 2017- Kuensel again covered a news titled: Erratic power supply irks jomotsangkha residents". Similarly on 5th October 2020, BPC uploaded on their website informing the general public that electricity supply was disrupted  since 27th September. Taking 18 days, the power supply was restored. 

BBS also covered a news on 18th May, titled: the power supply in Jomotshangkha Dungkhag and its three gewogs of Langchenphug, Serthig and Lauri is restored at around 3:30 this afternoon. Electricity supply in the Dungkhag was cut off since 15th May.

In the BBS coverage of  June 22, 2022 issue  titled: "Persistent power outage in Jomotshangkha infuriates residents", It reports  the three Gewog were without  power supply for 17 days.  While the same situation reported by BPC on its Facebook page states that power outage that commenced since  was  10th  September was corrected and power restored on 27th September 2020.

Surprisingly, in all the notification and clarification BPC has provided states that the power blackout happened due to heavy rainfall, gusty wind, flood, landslides, animals attack and lightening strikes. And the reason for them to take long in find faults occurred due to inaccesbilty, thick forest, fear of wild animals, swollen river and etc.