Power cut hits Secretariat days after grid failure

Jaipur: A power outage hit the Secretariat for nearly 20 minutes Tuesday, the second high-profile disruption this week and just days after a nearly 15-minute power cut at Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s news conference in Jaipur left the administration embarrassed.Officials blamed Tuesday’s blackout on a technical snag at the 400 kV Heerapura Grid Substation, which has seen recurring tripping in recent weeks. The disruption also affected Civil Lines, cutting electricity to the residences of the deputy chief minister and several cabinet ministers for close to half an hour.Staff reportedly made repeated calls to engineers as the outage persisted in the high-security administrative zone, where such interruptions are considered rare.TOI tried to speak to senior officials in the Rajasthan Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd but could not get a response. .An employee in the Secretariat said, “Power went off for about 15 mins in the whole of the Secretariat at around 10.30 am. Such incidents are rare in the Secretariat. Even if there is an outage, power used to come within a minute or so, but never this long.”This is the third such incident of 400 kV Heerapura Grid Substation tripping in less than three weeks.

After the June 11 outage when Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was holding a media briefing, the state energy minister formed a committee to investigate the lapses and suspended two employees at the Heerapura GSS while serving chargesheet to another.On Tuesday, RVPN transferred an engineer from the Heerapura GSS and deployed two more. It said the transfers were aimed at maintaining uninterrupted supply of electricity and proper maintenance. The latest incident again points to serious laxity in operation and management of the GSS, which is a lifeline for the consumers in Jaipur.