Councillors and residents protest over delayed power restoration

Tripunithura: Councillors, led by Maradu municipality chairperson Ajitha Nandakumar, and residents held a sit-in protest at Maradu Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) office on Wednesday. They were protesting the delay in restoring power supply, which was disrupted due to heavy rain and wind on Tuesday.Nandakumar said even after 24 hours, KSEB failed to restore power, despite being promptly informed. The councillors were upset after KSEB officials cited a lack of sufficient staff as the reason for the delay. The power outage caused significant inconvenience to residents as many areas remained without electricity. Although KSEB assistant engineer assured the council that power would be restored soon, the councillors claimed there was no notable progress. The protest escalated as they accused KSEB authorities of misleading both council and public. The protesters demanded immediate restoration of electricity across all municipal areas and urgent hiring of additional staff. Meanwhile, in Tripunithura, many cables were damaged due to large tree branches falling and fibre roofs being blown off high-rise buildings. "The power outage that began at 8pm on Tuesday is yet to be resolved in most of the areas of the municipality," said Sankaran Namboothiri, a resident of Vadakke Kotta. He added that although the fallen tree branches were cleared by Wednesday morning, power was still not restored in many areas.