Jajarkot, September 7:

Telephone service and power supply have remained disrupted in Jajarkot bazaar for a month. Most of the local residents have CDMA telephone sets, which need to be plugged into sources of power for recharging.

Local residents have been facing a prolonged blackout after the Bijayeshwori Hydropower Company stopped supplying power to the bazaar. The company halted supply saying that the stream had to be diverted for irrigation, complained Keshav Jung Shah, a coordinator of civil society. “Power supply has been disrupted and telephone sets have stopped ringing for over 20 days,” Shah said. “Fed up with this state of affairs, I have stopped asking service providers to resume the supply.” “We tried to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the prolonged power cuts and disruption in telephone service time and again to no avail,” said Rajendra Karki, adviser to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Jajarkot district chapter.

“There is power crisis in the bazaar round the clock. Unable to recharge their phone sets, the local residents have been devoid of telephone connectivity,” said Bir Man Nepali, acting chief of the Nepal Telecom in Jajarkot. A staffer of

the hyrdopower company, Ratna Raj Hamal, said the supply will resume within the next 10 days.