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Kalimpong, June 21: Frequent load shedding, sometimes lasting for a day, over the past one week has affected business in this hill subdivision.
While hotels and shopowners are the worst hit in this tourist season, voices of protest can be heard from other quarters too. Students are complaining that they have to study under candlelight because of power-less nights.

A memorandum to look into the matter has been already submitted through the Kalimpong Consumer Association (KCA) to the West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB).

“There have been massive power cuts in the Town II circuit lasting almost a whole day for the past one week. This has created problems not only for people in general, but also for hotels. Students, most of whom are attending their first term examinations, are finding it difficult to study,” said Prafulla Rao, the secretary of the KCA.

Amod Yonzon, the president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Kalimpong, said: “Power supply has been very erratic for the past two months with matters getting worse in the last one week. Tourists here are mostly from metropolitan cities where electricity is a basic amenity. The same people are now being forced to spend the night with only a candle for light, as most hotels here do not have alternative power supply. This gives visitors a bad impression of the town.”

Echoing him, the principal of Scottish Universities Mission Institution (SUMI), N.R. Pradhan, said: “Computer and science practical classes are the worst hit. We were even unable to hand out computer-generated marksheets due to constant electricity failure. Finally we had to do it manually. At night the situation is worse, with students having to study under the candlelight.”

“Earlier, a lot of complaints had been made to the electricity board, but to no avail. This time, we have approached them through the KCA,” Pradhan added.

The divisional engineer of WBSEB, L. Bhowmick, told The Telegraph over phone from Siliguri: “There seems to be a technical fault at the sub station there (Kalimpong). We are trying to rectify the error which is causing frequent power cuts.”